Mission Software Engineer, Air Vehicle Autonomy, Backend

Front Door Defense; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 166,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Top-tier benefits

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, California, seeks a Mission Software Engineer for Air Vehicle Autonomy to develop and integrate autonomous flight software powering air vehicle control and mission autonomy.

Join the Air Dominance & Strike team, contribute to Lattice OS, and work with cross-functional teams to deliver robust autonomy software across perception, planning, and control domains.

Qualifications

• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance.
• Strong engineering background in CS/Software Eng/Math/Physics.
• 3+ years with Java, Python, C++, Rust, Go, JavaScript.
• Experience handling large data processing and analysis.
• Ability to understand and navigate complex systems and code bases.
• Desire to work on critically impactful software.

Responsibilities

• Develop and integrate autonomous flight software for air vehicle control and mission autonomy.
• Collaborate with Perception, Motion Planning, Hardware, and Test Engineering teams to solve hard problems and enable mission autonomy.

Skills

Java

Python

C++

Rust

Go

JavaScript

Data processing

Complex systems

Education

Engineering degree (CS/SE/Math/Physics)

Job description

Mission Software Engineer, Air Vehicle Autonomy, Backend

Develop and integrate autonomous flight software for air vehicle control and mission autonomy

Location: Costa Mesa, California

Compensation: $166,000 - 220,000 USD / year

About The Role

Mission Software Engineer, Air Vehicle Autonomy, GenSWE

Costa Mesa, California, United States

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

The Air Dominance & Strike team at Anduril develops aerial and multi‑domain robotic systems. The team is responsible for taking products like Fury (unmanned fighter jet) and Barracuda (air‑breathing cruise missile) from concept to product. The team also develops Lattice for Mission Autonomy, Anduril's premier software platform that enables masses of Fury, Barracuda, and other first and third party robots to collaborate across various missions. We work in close coordination with specialist teams like Perception, Motion Planning, Hardware, and Test Engineering to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers. We are looking for software engineers and roboticists excited about creating a powerful autonomy software stack that includes computer vision, motion planning, SLAM, controls, estimation, and secure communications.

Required Qualifications

• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance
• Strong engineering background from industry or school, ideally in areas/fields such as Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, or Physics
• 3+ years working with a variety of programming languages such as Java, Python, C++, Rust, Go, JavaScript, etc.
• Experience building software solutions involving significant amounts of data processing and analysis
• Ability to quickly understand and navigate complex systems and established code bases
• A desire to work on critical software that has a real‑world impact

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong background with focus in Physics, Mathematics, and/or Motion Planning to inform modeling & simulation (M&S) and physical systems
• Developing and testing multi‑agent autonomous systems and deploying in real‑world environments
• Feature and algorithm development with an understanding of behavior trees
• Developing software/hardware for flight systems and safety critical functionality
• Distributed communication networks and message standards
• Knowledge of military systems and operational tactics

US Salary Range

$166,000 - $220,000 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. For more information, Explore Our Benefits.

Data Privacy

To view Anduril's candidate data privacy policy, please visit https://anduril.com/applicant-privacy-notice/.

By submitting your application, you consent to Anduril Industries using a third‑party service provider to conduct pre‑employment risk, integrity, and due diligence screening and assessing potential risks as part of your application process. This third‑party service provider provides risk‑intelligence services that may include analysis of sanctions and watchlists, adverse media, public‑record information, and other lawful open‑source or commercial data sources. This third‑party service provider does not act as a consumer reporting agency. Use of this provider helps to ensure compliance with applicable laws and protect technology, intellectual property, and organizational security.