Senior Aerodynamics Engineer, Omen

Slope; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 166,000 - 292,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa is seeking an Aerodynamicist to join the Omen team. You will design unmanned vehicles, perform aerodynamic analysis, and support wind tunnel and flight testing to advance a high-velocity, Group 3 platform.

You will influence full development lifecycle, work with high-ownership culture, and contribute to autonomous air systems with competitive compensation and strong benefits.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Physics, or related technical discipline.
• 8-10+ years of work experience as an individual contributing engineer in a high-impact startup environment.
• Experience with aircraft performance, analysis predictions, and Stability & Control.
• Competent in aerodynamic analysis techniques including hand calculations, vortex, lattice methods, panel methods, and CFD
• Wind tunnel and flight test experience including data acquisition, data analysis and project coordination
• Strong programming skills in MATLAB and Python for internal tool development in a version-controlled environment
• Experience leading engineering teams and projects for aerospace/defense sectors with focus on electric or hybrid propulsion
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance (US applicant) or NV-1 AUS security clearance (AUS applicant)
• Travel to test sites and vendors as needed.

Responsibilities

• Aerodynamic design of unmanned air vehicles/missiles at conceptual, preliminary, and detail design maturities
• Aerodynamic analysis of unmanned air vehicles using low and high order methods and developing/improving tools
• Stability and control analysis
• Aircraft performance modeling and simulation
• Aerodynamic loads generation
• Wind tunnel test planning, execution, and analysis
• Flight test planning, execution, and analysis

Skills

Aerospace design

Unmanned aircraft

CFD

MATLAB/Python

Wind tunnel testing

Stability and Control

Problem solving

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering

Tools

StarCCM+

Flow360

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

Anduril is seeking an Aerodynamicist to join the Omen team at either our Costa Mesa HQ, or Melbourne, Australia office. Omen is Anduril’s hover-to-cruise autonomous air vehicle (AAV) that packs the endurance, payload, and mission flexibility of much larger airplanes into a novel runway-independent Group 3 platform. Omen can operate from ship decks, beaches, or remote island clearings, providing true runway independence and freedom of maneuver across defense and civilian domains. Omen is the first tail-sitter aircraft with a mass-production contract, with an order of 50 systems representing a decisive investment that anchors production and accelerates the development of future systems.

You will work on new aircraft development in a lean, high-ownership culture where you directly shape the product and operate at a velocity to fly new designs within months, not years.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As an Aerodynamicist on the Maneuver Dominance Team, you will be designing unmanned vehicles intended to revolutionize the aerospace field. You will be engaged in the full development lifecycle. You possess strong programming and analytical skills with a focus on aerodynamic design, analysis, and testing. Competitive compensation and top-tier benefits are provided, along with a commitment to innovation in military technology.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Aerodynamic design of unmanned air vehicles/missiles at conceptual, preliminary, and detail design maturities
• Aerodynamic analysis of unmanned air vehicles, using both low and high order methods, including analysis tool development and improvement as needed
• Stability and control analysis
• Aircraft performance modeling and simulation
• Aerodynamic loads generation
• Wind tunnel test planning, execution, and analysis
• Flight test planning, execution, and analysis

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• High-ownership and a bias toward action – if you see a problem, you want to fix it
• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineer, Robotics, Physics, or related technical discipline
• 8-10+ years of work experience as an individual contributing engineer in a high-impact, start-up environment
• Experience with aircraft performance, analysis predictions, and Stability & Control.
• Competent in a variety of aerodynamic analysis techniques including hand calculations, vortex, lattice methods, panel methods, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Wind tunnel and flight test experience including data acquisition, data analysis and project coordination
• Strong programming skills in higher-level languages (e.g., MATLAB, Python) for internal tool development in a version-controlled environment
• Experience preparing formal documentation (i.e., specifications, test procedures, technical reports, etc.)
• Experience in engineering team leadership and project execution for aerospace, automotive, or defense sectors with focus on electric or hybrid propulsion
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance (US applicant) or NV-1 AUS security clearance (AUS applicant)
• Travel to test sites and vendors as needed

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• StarCCM+ and/or Flow360 experience
• Experience with subsonic, transonic and supersonic flow regimes
• Active U.S. Secret security clearance (US applicant), or active NV-1 security clearance (AUS applicant)

US Salary Range: $166,000 — $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.