Project Engineer and Site Lead, Autonomous Airpower

Anduril-1; Victorville (CA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 194,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries seeks a Project Engineer to manage the Victorville test site for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. You will align test operations, maintenance, and test engineering to meet program objectives, acting as a linchpin between technicians and executives.

The role requires strong leadership, aircraft modification judgment, and capability to ensure airworthiness and engineering adequacy across development activities. Expect high visibilité and growth potential.

Qualifications

• 8-15 years of experience in aircraft, weapons, or missile systems development and test.
• Hands-on experience with test, maintenance, and/or test stands.
• Experience with developmental systems of manned and/or unmanned aircraft including test planning and execution.
• Willingness to travel and to work extended hours; ability to obtain U.S. Top Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Leads test engineering, maintenance, and operations for the Victorville test site.
• Responsible for safety, and effectiveness of ground, taxi, and flight test.
• Drives efficient operations; builds teams and processes to scale and sets quality/safety bar.
• Leads technical problem solving, RCCA investigations, and data-driven analysis.
• Approves maintenance and test plans; directs aircraft configuration and readiness for operations.
• Accountable to Head of Test for safe, efficient, and technically adequate operations.

Skills

Test engineering

System development

Leadership

Security clearance ready

Tools

Test stands

Ground/flight test ops

Job description

Project Engineer and Site Lead, Autonomous Airpower

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 division designs, develops, tests, and fields the next generation of autonomous air systems, strike weapons, and advanced propulsion for the United States and its allies.

Our portfolio includes Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) such as Fury, loitering munitions and flexible-payload air vehicles like ALTIUS, high-rate manufacturing cruise missile systems like Barracuda, VTOL autonomous interceptors like Roadrunner, and advanced solid rocket motor technologies. We operate at the intersection of rapid flight testing, high-rate manufacturing, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and edge-compute autonomy to deliver combat-credible capability at the speed of relevance.

The Autonomous Airpower business line specializes in Group 5 UAS systems. The Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test team is responsible for cradle to grave capability creation and delivery. We don’t just check boxes, we cut across all disciplines to architect and test the next generation of systems.

ABOUT THE JOB

We are hiring a Project Engineer to manage our developmental test site for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. This role will serve as a linchpin, aligning test operations, maintenance, and test engineering to meet program objectives. This is a high-visibility and high-growth-potential role; the expectation is that this role will establish and set a standard for the business line to apply to future programs. To be successful, this role requires a strong leader, capable of interfacing with and coordinating across all program stakeholders from technicians to executives. Sound technical judgement and intuition for aircraft modification, maintenance, and operations are required to ensure airworthiness of aircraft and technical adequacy of engineering.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Leads test engineering, maintenance, and operations for the Victorville test site.
• Responsible for technical adequacy, safety, and effectiveness of ground, taxi, and flight test for the site.
• Drives efficient and effective operations, balancing trade-offs between speed, rigor, and safety. Builds the team and processes needed to optimize and scale. Sets the bar for the organization on quality of work, professionalism, and safety.
• Leads technical problem solving, RCCA investigations, and troubleshooting. Comfortable with full scope of problem solving, including hands-on troubleshooting, data review, system analysis, and process review.
• Approves maintenance and test plans. Directs aircraft configuration and ensures readiness for operations.
• Accountable to Head of Test for safe, efficient, and technically adequate operations at the assigned test site.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 8-15 years of experience in aircraft, weapons, or missile systems development and test.
• Hands-on experience with test, maintenance, and/or test stands.
• Test engineering experience working with developmental systems of manned and/or unmanned aircraft to include requirements development, test planning and execution, and test reporting.
• Ability to quickly understand new concepts, apply them accurately, and organize, schedule, and coordinate work phases to determine the right approach.
• Able to work extended hours as required.
• Ability to travel as required for test planning and execution.
• Ability to immediately obtain a U.S. Top Secret-level security clearance.

WHO YOU ARE:

• Bias for action – if you see a problem, you want to solve and fix it.
• Leader experienced building and scaling teams and processes.
• Comfortable with safety-critical systems and operations. You’ve built hardware and put it into operation.
• Aircraft operations, maintenance, and/or pilot experience. Homebuilt aircraft or A&P experience a plus.

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 .