Air Vehicle Lead, Advanced Effects

Visa Hunt; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Top-tier benefits

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA is seeking an Air Vehicle Lead to drive mechanical development of autonomous air vehicles from concept to flight test. Lead a 10–25 person team and collaborate with customers, vendors, and test sites.

You will shape requirements, drive architecture, and oversee prototypes, testing, and production transitions in a fast-paced defense environment.

Qualifications

• BS in aerospace, mechanical engineering, or related field.
• 8+ years of aerospace experience in a professional setting.
• Working knowledge of MIL standards and industry best practices.
• Strong understanding of air vehicle conceptual designs and transitioning to flying systems.
• Familiarity with aircraft subsystems and development methods (aero-performance, structures, avionics, propulsion, etc).
• Experience creating, organizing, and managing complex vehicle development designs in CAD.
• Experience developing and using aircraft sizing tools.
• Experience with prototype and production airframe manufacturing (composites/metallics).
• Demonstrate leadership to manage scope and schedules; strong communication.

Responsibilities

• Lead the mechanical development of new autonomous air vehicles from concept to flight test.
• Derive and shape requirements internally and externally.
• Drive system architecture to meet performance, rate, and cost targets.
• Hands-on development of aircraft, airframe, and subsystems design, fabrication and assembly.
• Lead design reviews, present to customers, visit vendors, define and execute test plans.
• Build prototypes, analyze failures, and transition projects to production.
• Travel to test sites and support customer discussions.
• Provide individual contributions alongside team leadership for 10–25 engineers.

Skills

Leadership

CAD modeling

Systems engineering

Aerospace standards

Team collaboration

Security clearance

Education

BS in aerospace or related field

MS in aerospace or related field

Tools

NX

Teamcenter

Job description

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

We are looking for an Air Vehicle Lead to join our rapidly growing Air Dominance and Strike team in Costa Mesa, CA. In this role, you will be responsible for the mechanical development of new autonomous missile systems. This will require strong understanding and experience developing advanced air vehicles from concept to delivery. If you are someone who thrives in a fast moving environment and you have experience driving design solutions then this role is for you.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead the mechanical development of new autonomous air vehicles, from initial system layout and conceptual design through detail design, fabrication, and flight test
• Derive and shape requirements both internally and externally
• Drive system architecture and design solutions in order to meet performance, rate, and cost requirements
• Hands-on development of aircraft, airframe, and subsystem detailed design, analysis, fabrication, and assembly
• Lead design reviews, present to customers, visit vendors, help define and execute test plans
• Build prototypes, analyze failures, and transition successful projects into production
• Travel to test sites and support customer discussions as needed
• Provide individual contributions in addition to technical leadership and oversight for a team of 10 to 25 multidisciplinary engineers

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• BS in aerospace, mechanical engineering, or related field
• 8+ years of aerospace experience in a professional setting
• Working knowledge of MIL standards and industry best practices
• Strong understanding and experience developing air vehicle conceptual designs and transitioning them to flying and deployable systems
• Familiarity with key aircraft subsystems and their development methods, including aero-performance, stability and control, structures, mechanisms, avionics, propulsion, fuel systems, thermodynamics, electrical integration, etc.
• Experience creating, organizing, and managing complex vehicle development designs in CAD
• Experience developing and using aircraft sizing tools
• Experience with prototype and production airframe manufacturing methods including composites and metallics
• Demonstrate leadership skills to manage scope and schedules, deconflict issues, communicate up and down the chain, maximize teamwork and collaboration in a dynamic environment.
• Must possess and be able to maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• MS in aerospace, mechanical engineering or related field
• Working knowledge of NX/Teamcenter
• Experience with air launched expendable systems
• Experience with air breathing high sub-sonic or super sonic expendable systems
• Experience with liquid or solid rocket motors on expendable systems
• Hands on manufacturing or fabrication experience
• Familiarity with low observable design principles
• Experience with surfacing and OML loft modeling
• Competency in engineering analysis, including aerodynamics, structural, thermal, and electrical

US Salary Range: $175,000 — $205,000 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.