Lab Lead, Space

Anduril Industries; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries is seeking a hands-on Lab Lead for its Space Manufacturing team in California. The role focuses on maintaining and operating lab equipment, managing cleanroom facilities, and ensuring readiness across three sites, including a future ISO-grade space.

You will execute gowning, contamination-control routines, and safety practices in a fast-paced environment. You will drive equipment uptime, coordinate with vendors, and potentially mentor technicians as operations scale, staying

Qualifications

• 4+ years maintaining and operating lab or manufacturing facility equipment in controlled settings.
• 2+ years in ISO-classified cleanrooms (ISO 5–8) or equivalent with gowning discipline.
• Hands-on safety experience with hazardous materials and gas handling.

Responsibilities

• Keep three space manufacturing spaces running day-to-day, including gowning zones and cleanrooms.
• Perform preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, and repair of lab equipment and facility systems.
• Coordinate vendors for work beyond scope and support safety, chemical handling, and inspections.
• Help onboard technicians as sites scale and transition to new facilities.

Skills

Lab maintenance

Cleanroom experience

Safety compliance

HVAC systems

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's Space Manufacturing team is seeking a hands-on Lab Lead to join our team. The Space Manufacturing team is responsible for the assembly, integration, and test of ground support equipment, PCBA, unit-level, and integrated systems that are vital for our aerospace and defense operations. This role keeps the day-to-day operation, readiness, and discipline of our Space Manufacturing lab spaces running across three locations - our operational space lab, the temporary cleanroom now being built, and the new facility (graded ISO 5-8) now being built to support development and low-rate builds of spaceflight hardware.

This is a working, hands-on role - you are the person on the floor who keeps the labs and cleanrooms running. You will personally maintain and troubleshoot lab equipment and facility systems, run the gowning and contamination-control routines, handle consumables and material flow, support safety and hazardous-material handling, and keep each space ready for build and test. You will coordinate vendors and specialists for work beyond your scope, and over time you may help bring on and guide additional technicians as the sites scale - but the core of this job is doing the hands-on work yourself to keep demanding lab and cleanroom environments operating to spec, in a fast-paced, resource-limited environment. If you are someone who likes to roll up your sleeves and be the person the floor relies on, this role is for you.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Keep the three Space Manufacturing lab spaces - the space lab, the temporary cleanroom (under construction), and the new facility (under construction) - running day-to-day, including gowning/anterooms, air showers, test bays, subassembly and assembly zones, and storage, so build and test run without facility-driven downtime.
• Perform hands-on maintenance, troubleshooting, and repair of lab equipment and critical components, and coordinate specialists or vendors for work beyond your scope to keep equipment available through regularly scheduled maintenance.
• Run the day-to-day contamination-control routines for each cleanroom (graded ISO 5-8): gowning and air-shower discipline, particle monitoring, supporting certification cadence, and keeping consumables (garments, gloves, wipes) stocked and flowing.
• Operate and maintain cleanroom and facility support systems hands-on - HVAC/air conditioning, environmental monitoring, compressed and specialty gases (including nitrogen purge), pumps, chillers, compressors, and DI water systems - taking readings, servicing on schedule, and coordinating vendors for larger work.
• Serve as the day-to-day, floor-level safety point of contact: follow and enforce safe work practices, handle and store hazardous materials and specialty gases safely, ensure safety instructions are in place before hazardous lab work begins, and support EHS on chemical handling, permits, and inspections.
• Manage lab equipment, assets, and material flow: tool/fixture check-in/check-out and asset tracking, calibration/metrology scheduling (in-house and via vendors), preventive maintenance, and receiving/kitting/stores/consumables flow in coordination with supply chain and quality.
• Keep each space audit-ready: maintain cleanroom operating procedures, gowning and contamination-control work instructions, safety procedures, and certification/monitoring records.
• Support the stand-up and transition of work into the new facility as it comes online - help set up new areas, move and install equipment, and support the wind-down of temporary space as capability moves.
• Partner day-to-day with AI&T, manufacturing engineering, and program teams to keep work and WIP moving across the sites, and communicate statuses, issues, and suggestions clearly.
• Over time, help onboard and guide additional technicians/specialists as the sites scale (potential growth into a team-lead/people-manager scope).

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 4+ years of hands-on experience maintaining and operating lab, cleanroom, or manufacturing facility equipment and systems in a controlled production or lab environment.
• Hands-on experience with mechanical, electrical, and facility-systems - experience with diagnosing, maintaining, repairing, and troubleshooting equipment and building/lab systems (e.g., HVAC/air conditioning, pumps, chillers, compressors, DI water), and reading and interpreting procedures, manuals, and instructions.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience working in or supporting an ISO-classified cleanroom (ISO 5-8 or equivalent) or other contamination-controlled environment, including gowning and cleanliness discipline.
• Hands-on safety experience with hazardous-material and compressed/specialty-gas handling and storage, including serving as