Head of Mission Systems

Anduril Industries; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA seeks an engineering leader to drive the Thunder mission system across platforms. You will oversee design, integration, and verification of mission software, payloads, and weapon interfaces, working with cross-functional teams and external vendors.

You’ll mentor senior engineers, define architecture decisions, and ensure traceability to customer requirements while supporting airworthiness and certification processes for a multi-domain autonomous system.

Qualifications

• Experience in a senior role for the delivery of a military mission system.
• Experience managing engineering teams within a high performing technology organization.
• Experience with distributed software platform and application architectures.
• Experience with modeling and simulation.
• Experience with Python and modern systems/programming languages (C++, Rust).
• Experience with development of high assurance safety critical software.
• Experience developing unit, integration, and regression test suites.
• Knowledge of weapon and payload integration for autonomous systems.
• Experience across the product delivery lifecycle including manufacturing, deployment, and sustainment.
• Familiarity with vehicle management systems and Systems Engineering concepts.
• Familiarity with MOSA/WOSA and relevant standards (MIL-STD-1760, MIL-STD-1553).
• Familiarity with interoperability standards (STANAG 4586).
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own customer success through the design and delivery of a fully operational mission system for a new Maneuver Dominance platform.
• Partner with Vehicle Software team; interface requirements between Vehicle Management System and Mission System stacks.
• Oversee payload system integration with the host vehicle mission system stack.
• Oversee weapon system integration, including compliance with munitions/range safety and export control.
• Drive architecture selection and design for robotic mission systems with MOSA/WOSA considerations.
• Own mission system interoperability and open-architecture posture per MOSA/WOSA and STANAGs.
• Define ICDs for MIL-STD-1760 and MIL-STD-1553 between mission system and payload vendors.
• Collaborate with airworthiness stakeholders to support Thunder’s certification pathway.
• Contribute to a company-wide roadmap for mission system integration into Maneuver Dominance platforms.
• Lead teams that develop software on- and off-platform across diverse technologies.
• Drive development processes for initial delivery and iterative mission software, including testing.
• Create test and simulation fixtures for software- and hardware-in-the-loop.
• Support vehicle manufacturing and deployment.
• Lead multi-disciplinary engineering teams and mentor Senior Software Engineers.
• Leverage internal teams to deliver capabilities beyond current platforms with architectural evolution.

Skills

Senior leadership

Engineering leadership

Distributed software architectures

Modeling & simulation

Python

C++

Rust

Safety-critical software

Unit/integration testing

Weapons/payload integration

Product delivery lifecycle

Vehicle management systems familiarity

Systems Engineering concepts

MOSA/WOSA familiarity

Mil-Std 1760/1553 familiarity

Security clearance eligibility

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Mechatronics, Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience

Job description

US Citizen Only (must be able to obtain US TS clearance)

About The Team

The Maneuver Dominance team at Anduril develops operationally relevant, multi-asset autonomy. Thunder is Anduril’s Group 5 autonomous tilt-rotor platform. Anduril’s Mission Systems are integrated onto Archer Aviation’s eVTOL platform, combining the speed, range, and vertical takeoff and landing capability of advanced electric aircraft with Anduril’s autonomy, sensing, and command-and-control software. Announced at the Farnborough Airshow, Thunder represents a strategic codevelopment partnership between Anduril and Archer, pairing a proven commercial eVTOL airframe with a battle-tested autonomy stack to deliver a runway-independent, uncrewed platform capable of operating across contested and austere environments. Thunder extends Anduril’s Lattice ecosystem to a new class of air vehicle, unlocking rapid, scalable production of a distributed, multi-mission autonomous aircraft built for both defense and commercial applications.

About The Job

Anduril is seeking an engineering leader to join the Maneuver Dominance team at our Costa Mesa HQ. The Maneuver Dominance (MD) Team at Anduril develops aerial robotic systems designed to operate in large coordinated teams in concert with ground maneuver forces. We leverage existing Anduril drone platforms like Ghost, Altius, or Roadrunner, in addition to bringing 3rd party platforms into Anduril’s Lattice ecosystem. We develop perception and autonomy algorithms to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers.

This role has the unique opportunity to bring Thunder’s Mission System to life, from initial concept through delivery. This encompasses the mission autonomy, mission equipment, and payload systems. You will lead the technical development and integration of mission systems of the core Thunder platform. In doing so, you will work closely with program leadership, teams from other Anduril products, and third party system vendors to develop these designs so that requirements are tied to customer inputs and there is traceability to program office technical decisions.

Your spectrum of support will be diverse in nature and require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build cross-functional teams, and rapidly drive to completion. The ability to leverage your intuition and prior experience will be key in making sure the right design, analysis, and test steps are completed to ensure success. The ideal candidate will leverage their experience executing and successfully completing prior highly optimized multi-disciplinary projects.

What You’ll Do

• Own customer success through the design and delivery of a fully operational mission system for a new Maneuver Dominance platform.
• Partner with the Vehicle Software team that is responsible for core sensor, actuator, and vehicle system functionality. Collaborate on interfacing requirements between Vehicle Management System and Mission System stacks.
• Oversee payload system integration with the host vehicle mission system stack.
• Oversee weapon system integration, including compliance with applicable munitions/range safety and export control requirements.
• Drive architecture selection and design for robotic mission systems, including hardware selection, compute, storage and network architecture, with explicit consideration of modular open systems approaches (MOSA/WOSA), STANAG 4586 interoperability, and standard weapon/payload interfaces (MIL-STD-1760, MIL-STD-1553). Service orchestration and other software platform concerns that balance constraints, restrictions and requirements in a multi-stakeholder environment.
• Own the mission system’s interoperability and open-architecture posture, including compliance with MOSA/WOSA principles, STANAG 4586/4671 (UAS control and airworthiness interoperability), and AEDP/AGRA-aligned genealogy/airworthiness data practices where applicable to Thunder’s certification pathway.
• Define and own the payload/weapon interface control documents (ICDs) governing MIL-STD-1760 (aircraft/store electrical interconnection) and MIL-STD-1553 (data bus) integration between the mission system and third-party payload/weapon vendors.
• Partner with airworthiness/certification stakeholders to ensure mission system design supports Thunder’s path to airworthiness approval (e.g., MOSA-based airworthiness/AGRA-style genealogy tracking, safety case development) given the Archer eVTOL codevelopment structure.
• Contribute to the design and development of a company-wide roadmap for mission system integration into Maneuver Dominance platforms, including necessary software inputs.
• Lead teams that develop software that runs on- and off-platform, using a variety of technologies.
• Drive the design and implementation of development processes for the initial delivery and subsequent iteration of mission software, including full lifecycle testing.
• Drive the creation of test and simulation fixtures that operate with both software- and hardware-in-the-loop.
• Support vehicle manufacturing and deployment.
• Lead teams of multi-disciplinary engineers, including as a mentor for Senior Software Engineers from differing backgrounds.
• Leverage internal product and program-specific engineering teams to rapidly deliver capability beyond the scope of current platforms, with a clear path for both architecture and capability evolution over time.
• Travel to co-locate with end-users and/or other teams up to 25% of the time.

Required Qualifications

• Experience in a senior role for the delivery of a military mission system
• Experience managing engineering teams (many direct reports) within a high performing technology organization
• Experience with the development and sustainment of distributed software platform and application architectures, running under dynamic network topologies
• Experience with modeling and simulation
• Experience with Python and modern systems/application programming languages (e.g., C++, Rust)
• Experience with development of high assurance safety critical software
• Experience developing comprehensive unit, integration, and regression test suites
• Deep understanding of weapon and payload integration for autonomous systems, across commercial and military mission sets
• Experience within the product delivery lifecycle including manufacturing, system acceptance, deployment, and sustainment
• Familiarity with vehicle management systems
• Familiarity with Systems Engineering concepts, including requirements traceability and interface control documentation (ICDs)
• Familiarity with modular open systems approaches (MOSA/WOSA) and their application to air vehicle mission systems
• Familiarity with standard military avionics/weapon interface protocols (e.g., MIL-STD-1760, MIL-STD-1553) and relevant interoperability standards (e.g., STANAG 4586)
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Mechatronics, Computer Science, Engineering, a relevant field, or equivalent experience
• Systems and/or application programming skills including algorithms, data structures, concurrency and optimization
• Experience troubleshooting and analyzing remotely deployed software systems
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and building team cohesion
• Experience with airworthiness certification processes for uncrewed or manned-unmanned teaming aircraft (e.g., MOSA-based airworthiness assessments, AGRA genealogy/pedigree tracking)
• Experience integrating third-party or government-furnished payload/weapon systems into a new host platform, including ICD negotiation with external vendors
• Familiarity with export control considerations (ITAR/EAR) relevant to weapon/payload system integration