Project Controls Lead (Design & Construction)

Anduril Industries; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 166,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

Anduril Industries is seeking a seasoned Capital Operations Project Controls Lead within the Design & Construction team in Costa Mesa, CA. You will establish cost structures, lead forecasting, and coordinate capex reporting with Finance and Real Estate.

This role drives governance, budgeting, and performance across the project portfolio. You will partner with construction PMs and FP&A to translate project data into actionable narratives for executives, while overseeing the PMO and ensuring

Qualifications

• Minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in construction management or project controls.
• Proficient in Excel and PowerPoint; capable of distilling data for executives.
• Strong communication with executives and stakeholders.
• Willingness to travel about 10% of the time (international travel included).
• Must be a U.S. Person due to access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities.

Responsibilities

• Establish cost category structure and WBS across all construction projects.
• Implement best practices for cost forecasting (cash flow, cost accruals) and train PMs.
• Collaborate with Corporate Finance for monthly, quarterly, and annual capex reporting.
• Own and evolve the Historical Cost Database for future estimates and benchmarks.
• Support the budget approval process with Strategic Real Estate for projects large and small.
• Develop Anduril's annual capital plan with cost estimates and milestone schedules.
• Bridge Design & Construction with FP&A for forecasting, variance analysis, and board reporting.
• Oversee PMO staff and ensure rigorous, transparent performance management.

Skills

Excel proficiency

PowerPoint proficiency

Executive communication

Travel willingness

U.S. Person required

Education

Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering / Architecture / Construction Management

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 Design & Construction team at Anduril delivers the factories, labs, offices, and secure spaces that enable our teams to design, build, and deploy advanced defense technology. Our projects span high-performance manufacturing facilities, mission-critical secure environments, and collaborative workspaces, giving our team exposure to a uniquely wide variety of technical and operational challenges. More than just delivering buildings, we are (literally) rebuilding the American defense industrial base. Our work directly accelerates how quickly critical technology moves from concept to production and into the hands of the warfighter.

ABOUT THE JOB

The Capital Operations team sits within the broader Design & Construction organization at Anduril. We are responsible for providing the critical support needed to bring our sites to life. We do so by creating, maintaining, and executing key operational process, analytics, and tools. All the while, we are collaborating with a variety of stakeholders involved in shaping the built environment needed to enable Anduril's mission (construction managers, architects, industrial engineers, real estate planners, finance analysts, and many more). But, first and foremost, we deeply listen to what our Division Leaders need. Whether it is autonomous submarines, robot fighter jets, or AR headsets, we stay close to our end users to ensure we're fueling their success.

This role is a seasoned Project Controls Lead who will partner with construction project managers and make our entire Design & Construction organization successful over time.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Construction Financials:
  • Take a leading role in establishing our cost category structure / WBS to utilize across all construction projects.
  • Establish and implement best practices for cost forecasting (cash flow, cost accruals, etc.). Build templates and train Construction PMs as needed.
  • Collaborate with Corporate Finance for monthly, quarterly, and annual (portfolio-wide) capex reporting.
  • Own and evolve Anduril's Historical Cost Database so that it is useful to (1) generate future cost estimates and (2) benchmark construction cost performance over time.
  • Support our budget approval process for projects of all sizes — from megaprojects to small renovations — in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment. This requires partnership with our Strategic Real Estate team and our Head of Site Due Diligence.
  • Annual Capital Planning: Partner with Construction Managers and Strategic Real Estate to develop Anduril's annual capital plan — assembling the portfolio of proposed projects with preliminary cost estimates and high-level milestone schedules to support prioritization and funding decisions.
  • Serve as the primary bridge between the Design & Construction organization and FP&A — translating project-level financial data into the formats, cadences, and narratives that corporate finance needs for forecasting, variance analysis, and board-level reporting.
• Governance & Process Development
  • Change Order Management: Oversee a vendor-supported PMO that follows a Quantity Surveyor (QS) approach to change order review — ensuring material quantities and labor pricing are accurate and that Anduril's capital dollars are spent responsibly. You won't be in the weeds of every change order, but you will ensure the process runs with rigor, that PMO staff are executing reviews consistently, and that all change order decisions are properly documented and memorialized across the portfolio.
  • Design and implement project approval processes (scope, cost, schedule) — including developing supporting documentation and training project management team on use. Advise on budget and schedule modification processes.
  • Establish clear role delineation and accountability frameworks at project initiation, so that every project kicks off with shared understanding of who owns what across internal teams, design consultants, and contractors.
• Project Reporting:
  • Develop templatized financial reporting materials compatible with new governance and cost control measures, including summary views for various audiences (Executives, internal stakeholders, others).
  • Create templates for both asynchronous executive communication and live presentation materials (PowerPoints, Excels). Establish KPIs for individual projects and the Design & Construction team as a whole.
• Other:
  • Oversight of our Project Management Office (PMO) staff (external consultants), cultivating a well defined, rigorous, and transparent performance management rhythm.
  • Invoice Management: Serve as the central point of coordination for construction invoice review across the portfolio — ensuring submittals are complete, aligned to contract terms and approved budgets, and processed through a consistent workflow before reaching Finance for payment. Establish and maintain the standards and cadence that Construction PMs follow when reviewing and approving invoices.
  • Project Management Information System (PMIS): Manage the implementation, orchestration, and Construction Project Manager adoption of our Project Management Information System — supported by vendor PMO personnel.
  • Scheduling Support: While not an immediate focus, this role will grow into providing scheduling support across the portfolio over time — including the development of cost-loaded schedules for individual projects and closer integration between schedule and cost data.
  • Risk Management: Over time, this role will expand to include the development of project and portfolio-level risk management practices — building the frameworks, registers, and quantitative analysis capabilities that a maturing capital program requires.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in construction management or project controls.
• Excel proficiency: You can work quickly, you’re organized, and you build models that others can easily and intuitively pick up.
• PowerPoint proficiency: You are a world-class storyteller and can distill complex data into simple slides that are digestible by executives.
• You can elegantly and concisely communicate with executives.
• Willingness to travel at 10% of the time (international travel included).
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in Corporate Construction Management or as an Owner’s Representative.
• Experience with advanced manufacturing-related projects
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Architecture, Construction Management, or a related field.

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.