Chief Engineer, USMC

Anduril Industries; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 191,000 - 254,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries is a defense tech company transforming U.S. and allied military capabilities with AI-powered autonomy and integration across sensors and networks.

The Chief Engineer will own architecture and technical performance for Marine Corps air defense programs, including fielded installations and maneuver projects. You will chair design reviews, set the technical baseline, and coordinate across program engineers, product teams, and field teams.

Qualifications

• Engineering or science degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of systems or engineering experience with ownership on fielded systems.
• End-to-end technical accountability for deployed systems in an operational environment, not just artifacts.
• Ability to brief senior technical leadership and customer program leadership directly.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time and eligibility for active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Serve as Chief Engineer for Air Defense's U.S. Marine Corps programs, owning architecture and readiness across the fielded installation and maneuver programs.
• Maintain the engineering baseline across a deployed fleet, manage engineering changes, and ensure alignment of hardware, software, and docs at every site.
• Turn Marine Corps concepts into deployable systems, designing within size, weight, power, and transportability constraints and integrating onto vehicles and platforms.
• Define interfaces to command and control and effectors; own the technical case through demonstrations and fly-offs for government customers.
• Review product plans to show what works today, what needs an engineering sprint, and what isn’t ready, while managing customer commitments.

Skills

Technical ownership

Systems engineering

Cross-team leadership

Capability integration

Security clearance

Education

Engineering or science degree

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 Job

Anduril runs two kinds of air defense programs for the U.S. Marine Corps. The first is a counter-UAS program of record that defends Marine Corps installations in the U.S. and overseas. The second is organic counter-UAS for the Marine maneuver force across dismounted, mounted, and expeditionary formations, where the Marine Corps is selecting systems now through competitive white papers, government demonstrations, and fly-offs.

As Chief Engineer, you're the single technical authority across both. You own the architecture and technical performance of everything Anduril delivers or proposes to the Marine Corps: our own sensors and effectors, the third-party and government-furnished systems we integrate, and the networks and command and control that connect them.

The Marine Corps acquires these two kinds of capability in different ways. An installation is a sustained service, where uptime, configuration control, safety, and accreditation carry as much weight as the sensors. A Marine maneuver unit buys a system, takes it out of the box, and expects it to work without a software update in the field. That changes what counts as ready, how Anduril prices and sustains the system, and what we can responsibly promise. You keep the two models separate where they have to differ, and you build commonality across them where it holds up.

You also decide what Anduril presents to the customer as ready. Each product team owns its own product, and you own the integrated answer: what we have, which fielded systems we could integrate, what a winning solution looks like for how Marines will use it, and what isn't mature enough to show a customer yet.

What You'll Do

Portfolio technical authority.

Serve as Chief Engineer for Air Defense's U.S. Marine Corps programs. Own system architecture, integration strategy, fielding readiness, and sustainment outcomes across the fielded installation program and the maneuver programs and pursuits. Set the technical baseline, chair design reviews, and make the technical decisions that keep schedule and engineering aligned. Exercise this authority across program engineers, product teams, and field teams who don't report to you.

Fielded baseline.

Maintain the engineering baseline for a fleet deployed across many sites as it transitions to a next-generation sensor and compute configuration. Run engineering change and configuration management so hardware, software, and documentation agree at every site. Change the baseline when field evidence shows it's incomplete or wrong, and make the case for the investments the next delivery needs.

Maneuver architecture.

Turn Marine Corps operational concepts for dismounted, mounted, and expeditionary counter-UAS into systems a Marine can carry, mount, or set up and trust. Design within size, weight, power, and transportability limits, and own integration onto vehicles and other platforms. Define interfaces to the command and control and effectors the Marine Corps already fields. Own the technical case through government demonstrations and fly-offs.

Technical maturity.

Review what product teams and business development plan to show the customer before they show it. Give Anduril a clear account of what works today, what needs an engineering sprint, and what isn't ready, and hold customer commitments to what the engineering supports.

Field performance and recovery.

Define the verification and qualification approach, and make the call on whether a configuration is ready to ship or demonstrate. When a fielded site degrades, lead the recovery under time pressure, including at overseas sites that depend on host-nation approvals and sit several time zones away. Feed what you learn back into the product so the next site doesn't repeat the failure.

Customer technical authority.

Represent Anduril's engineering position to the Marine Corps program office, its test and evaluation community, and the authorities who approve safety, cybersecurity, and fielding. Bring their requirements and constraints back to Anduril, and explain engineering constraints in terms the customer can act on.

Growth.

Partner with business development and program management on the technical content of pursuits, including white papers, requests for information, rough order of magnitude estimates, and proposals. Write the basis of estimate behind each one.

Required Qualifications

• Engineering, science, or other technical degree, or equivalent practical experience
• 10+ years of systems or engineering experience, with a track record of technical ownership on fielded systems
• End-to-end technical accountability for whether a delivered system worked in an operational environment, not only for producing its design artifacts
• Ownership of the architecture, interface set, and verification approach for a program or portfolio delivered to a U.S. defense customer
• Ability to carry technical authority across teams that don't report to you, and to brief senior technical leadership and customer program leadership directly
• Ability to negotiate requirements, deviations, and acceptance with a customer's technical representatives, and to write a credible basis of estimate
• Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time, including overseas
• Eligibility to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience delivering counter-UAS, ground-based air defense, or force protection capability to the U.S. Marine Corps
• Experience running recovery at a fielded site under time pressure, working from real hardware and real data
• Experience integrating third-party and government-furnished hardware and software into a system you were accountable for
• Prior Marine Corps service, or experience in a Marine Corps program office or test and evaluation organization
• Experience fielding dismounted or vehicle-mounted systems, including platform integration and design under tight size, weight, and power limits
• Experience sustaining a system at multiple permanent installations under an availability commitment
• Configuration management and engineering change experience on a program of record, including system safety and item identification requirements
• Experience owning a system's technical case through a competitive government demonstration or fly-off
• Depth in one or more of: radar, passive RF detection and electronic warfare, electro-optical and infrared sensors, effector integration, tactical networking, or air defense command and control
• Experience fielding at overseas installations, including host-nation spectrum and site approvals

US Salary Range

$191,000—$254,000 USD

Benefits

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:

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.

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