Mission Systems Lead - Thunder

Anduril; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 220,000 - 292,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries, Costa Mesa HQ, seeks an engineering leader to drive the Thunder mission system for Maneuver Dominance. You will lead cross-functional teams across software, hardware, and certification, translating customer needs into integrated mission systems for aerial platforms.

The role requires senior delivery experience, proficiency in Python/C++, and familiarity with MOSA/WOSA and MIL-STD interfaces, plus the ability to mentor engineers and manage complex programs.

Qualifications

• Senior engineering leadership delivering military mission systems.
• Experience building distributed software for aircraft or drones.
• Background in MOSA/WOSA, MIL-STD standards is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the design and delivery of a full mission system for a new platform.
• Collaborate with Vehicle Software and payload teams on interfaces.
• Oversee payload and weapon integration and safety/compliance.
• Define architecture including MOSA/WOSA, STANAG interoperability.
• Drive development processes, testing, and simulation fixtures.
• Travel up to 25% to co-locate with end-users.

Skills

Python

C++

Rust

Leadership experience

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Robotics, Mechatronics, CS or related field

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 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

US Salary Range: $220,000 — $292,000 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.