Chief Engineer, Anduril Industries
Air Defense
$224,000 - $336,000 bimonthly. Plus equity grants
Hardware and software for national security
Job no longer available
Hardware and software for national security
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$224,000 - $336,000 bimonthly. Plus equity grants
1001+ employees
Company mission
To defend against America's national security challenges to create a safer future for the nation.
Role
Who you are
- BS/MS in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field
- Previous work leading teams focused on systems architecture of radar, missile and/or weapon systems
- Strong understanding of the “why” behind effector, sensing, Fire Control, and systems design in Air Defense applications
- Experience leading technical programs related to Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD), Radar design and/or Missile experience
- Experience working with and designing electrical and mechanical systems for defense applications
- Significant leadership experience in a Chief Engineer or Architect-level role
- Proven experience leading development teams with mission-level models to inform design, operation, and troubleshooting of complex subsystems and their interactions in air defense applications
- Must be able to obtain and hold a U.S. Top Secret security clearance
- Experience in system level analysis and requirements flow-down
What the job involves
- We are looking for a Chief Engineer for our Air Defense business unit, with experience in this field to help design and manage the next generation of Anduril’s counter-UAS and emerging Air Defense portfolio
- To deliver value to the customer through a careful consideration of Effectors, Radar Systems, Command and Control, overall architecture, and the trade space you manage
- To prove successful execution against that architecture from concept through production
- In order to be successful at Anduril, a Business Line Chief Engineer needs to be fluent in analysis and rapid development to drive complex system level design trades within a CONOPs, in addition to carrying out the engineering product development, production, and sustainment through the entire product lifecycle
- Direct all engineering activities to include team building, execution, process, technical oversight, and budget monitoring
- Design and develop a counter UAS and Air Defense capability from first principles to integration of software and various sensors and effectors in coordination with a broader engineering team
- Work with our product management and business development teams to distill a CONOP and identify leading drivers of success
- Define the architecture topology that best meets the CONOP, and understand key trades that are made through simulation and/or exploratory prototyping techniques. This includes but is not limited to developing accurate models to direct design of various vehicle subsystems (sensing, compute, communications, energy storage and management, etc.)
- Prioritize and develop clear engineering strategies and accompanied resource plans. This is achieved by creating meaningful abstraction between sub-systems to guide engineering development efforts at scale and speed
- Incorporate DFM and other manufacturing considerations on the way to high-quality mass production
- Create and carry out a validation plan for the end to end system
- Own related reliability, yield, and performance efforts through development and into production
- Support and field systems in a hands-on fashion
Our take
Anduril makes hardware and software for defense agencies including the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security. Its hardware products include specialist drones with a long flight time and surveillance towers.
This hardware is tied together by proprietary software, the Lattice platform, which uses sensor fusion, machine learning, and mesh networking to integrate real-time data from Anduril hardware and third-party systems into a single, autonomous operating picture. While the hardware observes and detects, the software can make decisions as to the threat level of any anomalies, and so allow for observation and protection of an area or building with minimal manpower.
Anduril closed a $1 billion Series G funding round in 2025 led by the Founders Fund, doubling its valuation to $30 billion. This oversubscribed funding round came after the company doubled its revenue in 2024, when it won a contract with the US military to build its soldiers' VY/AR headsets for combat, a contract the company beat Microsoft to.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
68% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 9 rounds)
Jul 2025
$310m
GRANT
Jun 2025
$2.5bn
SERIES G
Total funding: $6.5bn
Company benefits
- Full Family Health Coverage
- 16 Weeks Paid Parental Leave for All Caregivers
- Family Planning & Support
- Incentivized Time Off
- Mental Health Resources
- Financial Planning
- Unlimited Provisions
- Professional Development
Company HQ
Irvine Business Complex, Irvine, CA
Leadership
Brian Schimpf
(Co-Founder & CEO)Having studied at Cornell, they joined Palantir as an Engineer in 2007. They left after over 9 years in order to co-found Anduril in July 2017 as CEO.
Palmer Luckey
(Co-Founder)They founded Oculus VR in April 2012, where they worked until April 2017 when they co-founded Anduril.
Trae Stephens
(Co-Founder)Former Lead Data Analyst at LexisNexis for 2 years, prior to spending 5 at Palantir. They joined Founders Fund as a Partner in 2014, and co-founded Anduril in 2017.
Matt Grimm
(Co-Founder & COO)Studied Engineering at Cornell before working as a Booz Allen Hamilton Consultant and spending over 6 years at Palantir as a Forward Deployed Engineer. They worked at Mithril Capital Management and Classy.org before co-founding Anduril in 2017.
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