Program Operations, Maritime (Heavy Metal)

Anduril-1; Orange (CA); Hybrid; USD 146,000 - 194,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Santa Ana, CA is seeking a Program Operations lead for the Heavy Metal maritime program. You will act as the operational right hand to the Program Manager, coordinating Stakeholder Integration, Supply Chain, Workforce Development, and Facilities while scaling a large, cost-focused program with EVMS discipline.

You will bridge division operations and program needs, shaping cadence, planning cycles, and repeatable execution patterns as the program grows into one of Anduril's

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in program operations, consulting, corporate strategy, finance, defense/aerospace program management, or general business analysis.
• Ability to solve complex, cross-functional problems with a program-management and operations lens.
• High ownership with humility; comfortable doing unglamorous work of running a large program.
• Thought partner who translates operational problems into data problems and executes.
• Able to be tactical and strategic; comfortable in yard, data, and details.
• Fast learner across finance, supply chain, workforce, and construction.
• Willing and able to be based in Washington, D.C. with travel to Costa Mesa, CA and other Anduril sites.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to export-controlled information access.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the operational backbone for the Program Manager, coordinating across Stakeholder Integration, Supply Chain, Workforce Development, and Facilities.
• Prepare briefing materials and manage commitments with external customers, primes, and government stakeholders.
• Translate procurement data into program-level risk pictures, surfacing long-lead, sole-source, and ramp risks.
• Collaborate on hiring and workforce scaling plans to support rapid program growth.
• Connect facility milestones, capital deployment, and production readiness into a single schedule.
• Lead strategic initiatives and executive-ready reviews, and support diligence sprints across domains.
• Support corporate planning cycles with goals, financials, and headcount planning.
• Onboard new team members and establish division-wide operating cadences.

Skills

Program Operations

Cross-functional

EVMS

Data-driven

Strategic planning

Rapid learning

Stakeholder mgmt

Willing to travel

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent education

Job description

Program Operations, Maritime (Heavy Metal)

Santa Ana, 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

Anduril's Maritime Division — one of Anduril's fastest-growing divisions — has assembled a diverse team of experts in software, robotics, artificial intelligence, sensor fusion, and data analysis to build the next generation of autonomous maritime capability. Within Maritime, the Heavy Metal business line is standing up a world-class execution concept underpinned by a digital-first production system and adoption of new, advanced manufacturing technologies. Anduril is redefining how industry does shipbuilding and bringing this new approach to a customer base that has historically been under-served.

ABOUT THE JOB

We are looking for a Program Operations lead to join the Heavy Metal team. In this role you will be the operational right hand to the Program Manager for a new platform and serve as the connective tissue across Finance (EVMS), Stakeholder Integration, Supply Chain, Workforce Development, and Facilities while also acting as a division-level business generalist who helps the program scale without breaking.

This is a hybrid role by design. Part program-facing: the discipline required to run a large and complex program on cost, on schedule, and against EVMS. Part division operations: strategic initiatives, executive rhythm, planning cycles, and repeatable execution patterns that the program needs as it scales into what will become one of Anduril's largest programs. You will be equally comfortable in a manufacturing bay as in an executive review.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Serve as the operational backbone for the product Program Manager, coordinating across the program's core AoRs (Stakeholder Integration, Supply Chain, Workforce Development, Facilities) so that the program can scale and meet its deliverables.
• Support Stakeholder Integration across a demanding external environment (customers, prime partners, government & community stakeholders) and key internal contributors (Heavy Metal’s Manufacturing Technology and Digital teams) — preparing briefing materials, tracking commitments, and acting as a swiss army knife to close loops across a program with an unusually broad set of watchers.
• Work alongside Supply Chain to translate procurement and vendor performance data into program-level risk pictures — surfacing long-lead exposure, sole-source concentrations, and supplier ramp risk before they become schedule slips.
• Partner with Workforce Development on the hiring, training, and skillset scaling plan required to man a program that is growing at an exponential rate — turning a workforce plan into a program-integrated tracking system rather than an HR spreadsheet.
• Support Facilities as a program dependency — connecting facility milestones, capital deployment, and production readiness so that the facility readiness and the product build plan are treated as one integrated schedule, not two.
• Lead strategic initiatives and special projects on behalf of the Program Manager and Heavy Metal leadership — from operating-model design to executive-review preparation to one-off diligence sprints on production, real estate, security, and growth opportunities as the program grows.
• Support the corporate planning cycle for the program — helping build and monitor performance against goals, financial plans, and headcount plans, so we can hit aggressive growth targets while staying honest about where we are.
• Onboard new team members and help stand up the internal operating cadence (all-hands, business reviews, division-wide events) — so that a rapidly growing team ramps fast and inherits a culture of 'doing things differently.'

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 3+ years of experience in some combination of program operations, consulting, corporate strategy, finance, defense/aerospace program management, or general business analysis.
• You love solving complex, ambiguous, cross-functional problems in a people-centric way — and you can hold a program-management lens and a general-business-operations lens at the same time.
• You're both high ownership and low ego — strong outcome orientation, high humility, and comfortable doing the unglamorous work of running a large program.
• You get energy from being a thought partner — translating operational problems into data problems, and then executing on them.
• You are tactical as well as strategic — you do not only sit at a 30,000-foot level; you will spend time in the yard, in the data, and in the details.
• You are a discerning and incredibly fast learner, and you can move between finance, supply chain, workforce, and construction fluently enough to be useful in each.
• Willing and able to be based in Washington, D.C. with regular travel to Costa Mesa, CA and other Anduril sites.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Typically 5+ years of experience and a Bachelor's degree or equivalent education/work experience. Brings solid, hands‑on expertise and can operate independently across a wide range of responsibilities.
• Exposure to Earned Value Management (EVMS) — either as a practitioner, an auditor, or a program leader who has had to make decisions off of it.
• Prior experience inside a shipbuilding, heavy‑manufacturing, aerospace, or large defense program — especially one navigating a customer relationship with the U.S. Navy or a prime shipbuilder.
• Experience standing up an operating cadence for a fast‑growing team or program — battle rhythms, review structures, planning cycles, tracking systems.
• Comfort working across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, finance, and workforce functions simultaneously — this role sits at the seam of all of them.

US Salary Range

$146,000 - $194,000 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:

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 .

Equal Employment Opportunity

As set forth in Anduril Industries’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

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