Air Vehicle Lead, Autonomous VTOL & Mission Systems

Andreessen Horowitz; United States; On-site; USD 146,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits package

Job summary

Anduril is seeking an Air Vehicle Lead, Thunder to join the Maneuver Dominance team at our Costa Mesa HQ. You will own the technical execution at the co‑development interface: ensuring the aircraft our partner builds is optimized for autonomous military missions.

You will drive design decisions, coordinate simulations, and manage cross‑team integration to achieve on‑time, safe, and certified capabilities for advanced tiltrotor systems in a demanding defense context.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in rotorcraft/VTOL engineering at subsys/vehicle level.
• Experience owning or negotiating technical interfaces (ICDs, power budgets, TPMs) across external partner boundaries.
• Hybrid-electric or electric propulsion architecture familiarity.
• Technical project management across multiple teams with milestone ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own the Air Vehicle System Design Document (SDD) and maintain the design baseline.
• Represent Anduril in partner vehicle engineering design reviews and advocate for military mission requirements.
• Define ICDs and manage the full co-development technical interface: space claims, power/thermal budgets, structural provisions, flight envelope allocations.
• Drive air vehicle configuration decisions that affect mission capability: payload bay geometry, antenna placement, sensor provisions, power architecture.
• Own TPM management across the air vehicle interface and track verification closure.
• Coordinate vehicle-level architecture decisions from Anduril's perspective to balance acoustic signature, cruise speed, payload capacity, and certification timeline.
• Provide simulation models and support operational analysis teams in mission trades.
• Plan capability increments and mission system integration phasing from early flight to full mission capability.
• Support TEMP buildout, design milestones, and flight test planning.
• Own the air vehicle certification strategy interface and coordinate with partner's certification approach.
• Drive cross-team execution to resolve integration issues and maintain schedule.

Skills

Rotorcraft engineering

VTOL flight mechanics

Technical interfaces

Hybrid-electric propulsion

Project management

Requirements engineering

Cross-team collaboration

Security clearance readiness

Job description

Anduril is seeking an Air Vehicle Lead, Thunder to join the Maneuver Dominance team at our Costa Mesa HQ. You will own the technical execution at the co‑development interface: ensuring the aircraft our partner builds is optimized for autonomous military missions.

You will drive design decisions, coordinate simulations, and manage cross‑team integration to achieve on‑time, safe, and certified capabilities for advanced tiltrotor systems in a demanding defense context.