Program Chief Engineer

Program Chief Engineer

Irvine, California, United States

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century's most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril's family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

About The Team

Anduril's Air Defense team builds autonomous robots that find other robots and knock them out of the sky. This team is the nexus of premier Anduril-built products such as Roadrunner, Sentry, Anvil, Pulsar, and Wisp integrated into a software-enabled Air Defense family of systems tailored to the modern battlespace. At a time when air superiority can no longer be taken for granted, we provide critical force protection capabilities to support the warfighter. Our autonomous family of networked sensors and effectors enables our users to rapidly close the kill chain against a broad range of UAS threats that continue to evolve at a rapid pace.

About The Role

This role provides an opportunity for immediate impact on real-world operations. Our focus is on creating groundbreaking technology that operators need and trust, and all your work will feed into this. You will go deep to learn about gaps in existing defense capabilities, engage with users, synthesize feedback, and build the product infrastructure to support our goals. Anduril is a rapidly growing company, and the right person for this role should be able to work in partnership with engineers and leadership, and thrive in a fast-paced environment with many competing priorities. You often will be expected to self direct, and to be comfortable navigating ambiguity. You will quickly take ownership of an Air Defense Program to solve specific challenges, craft your own vision for what the technical success of that initiative looks like, and own the execution of that vision through cross functional execution.

About You

You are a proven technical leader who delivers timely, quality, and performant systems to your client. Specifically:

• You are the internal advocate for your client; you represent their best interests within the engineering team
• You bridge the gap between Engineering and Field Operations
• You thrive in uncertainty. You are not a creature of process but can build structure where it is needed
• You can distinguish between must-have's and nice-to-have's. You can clearly say "No" to internal and external stakeholders
• You anticipate blockers and effectively plan around them
• You are hungry to learn complex technology and relish the opportunity to explain it to others
• You can seamlessly calibrate your communication to any level of technical audience
• You are a team player and contribute to positive and mission-aligned culture
• You effectively tie the strategic vision to the tactical execution
• You think critically and challenge ambiguity

What You'll Do

1. Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders, external clients, and industry partners to gather insights, align objectives, and secure buy-in for strategic initiatives. Act as the primary technical liaison for the client, advocate for their needs within the engineering organization and ensure their feedback directly influences the engineering roadmap. Communicate the outputs of these efforts including upcoming software releases, new capabilities, and performance improvement over time.
2. Technical Ownership: Drive technical outcomes through meticulous understanding of system performance, drive product development through operational learnings and data, own the technical narrative from product deliver through continuous improvements. Credibly represent our system in front of technical and nontechnical clients
3. Tactical Execution: Bring clarity to the path between engineering development and operational delivery. Whether through sprint planning and execution or on-the-ground support of test events, attack blockers and guide the team through fast-paced execution to deliver the optimal technical outcome for the client.
4. Strategic Planning: Translate strategic business goals and program requirements into actionable project plans, setting clear milestones, and driving initiatives from conception through to successful completion, ensuring they deliver intended outcomes and add value to the business. Oversee the allocation of personnel, budget, and other resources to ensure successful execution of these initiatives. When possible, lead with data.
5. Execute Autonomously: Execute on broad and/or ambiguous requirements from external clients. Seize the opportunity to shape requirements in favor of the optimal product for the client and the company. Demonstrate high ownership on all pieces of work. Become a trusted partner to Anduril's engineers.
6. Enable Cross Team Collaboration: Manage, unblock, and accelerate cross-team projects spanning multiple teams and initiatives. Collaborate closely and even embed within partner teams, such as hardware, software, test, and field operations as needed.
7. Shape Growth Opportunities: Support the drafting of technical proposals, ensuring that potential projects and scaling opportunities with each account are accurately scoped, resourced, and aligned with the organization's capabilities and strategic goals. Drive the alignment of the technical roadmap with the strategic vision

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 5+ years experience as a Lead Engineer, Technical Program Manager, Technical Product Manager, or Engineer in an autonomous systems, robotics, or software development environment.
• Proven client-facing technical program management and/or systems engineering experience, preferably in the defense, national security, or aerospace domains
• Strong background in systems engineering and architecture
• Demonstrated ability to interpret complex requirements, differentiate between rigid and flexible elements, and translate them into a robust, executable engineering framework.
• Ability to work with internal and external stakeholders, across a wide range of technical comfort
• Experience with at least one of the following: Link 16, JITC Certification, or Cyber Certification (IATT/ATO) and Risk Management Framework (RMF).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proficiency with Atlassian products (e.g., Jira, Confluence) for task tracking and robust program management support.
• Must be able to obtain a minimum Secret Clearance.
• Must be able to travel up to 25% of the time

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with specific fire control systems (e.g., AEGIS, TOC-L, THAAD)
• Strong technical, analytical and quantitative skills with the ability to use data and metrics to back up assumptions, recommendations and drive decisions
• Ability to work within organizations with minimal structure and with minimal direction.
• Active U.S. government security clearance.
• Bachelor's Degree in an Engineering discipline

US Salary Range

$129,000 - $171,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:

Benefits

At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you're supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information, Explore Our Benefits.

Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams

Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've observed a rise in sophisticated phishing and fraudulent schemes where individuals impersonate Anduril representatives, luring job seekers with false interviews or job offers. These scammers often attempt to extract payment or sensitive personal information.

To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:

• No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.

• Please always verify communications: <