Senior Manager, Manufacturing Engineering — Autonomous Airpower

Anduril Industries, Inc.; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 183,000 - 243,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries seeks a Senior Manager of Manufacturing Engineering to lead strategy and execution across our Autonomous Airpower portfolio. You will shape manufacturing feasibility, cost, and schedule and partner with chief engineers and growth teams from concept to full-rate production.

You will build and lead a manufacturing engineering team, balance design input with production reality, and drive cross-functional alignment to ensure programs reach milestones on time and on budget.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Electrical, or Industrial Engineering.
• 12+ years of manufacturing engineering experience in aerospace or defense.
• Hands-on knowledge of aircraft manufacturing across multiple disciplines.
• Experience across full aircraft production lifecycle: DFM, design reviews, prototype/first-article builds, LRIP, and full-rate production.
• 5+ years leading manufacturing engineering teams.
• Ability to present manufacturing status, risks, and recommendations to leadership.
• Strong cross-functional leadership across engineering, operations, supply chain, PM, and business leadership.
• Experience managing ME budgets and cost positions across programs.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead ME strategy and execution across the Autonomous Airpower portfolio and multiple programs.
• Serve as the primary ME point of contact for program managers and growth teams.
• Partner with chief engineers and design leadership through all engineering phases.
• Build and lead a team of manufacturing engineers across disciplines.
• Drive cross-functional alignment to ensure production readiness.
• Own ME cost and schedule, tracking, risks, and executive status updates.
• Represent ME in executive reviews and customer discussions with clear production context.
• Establish ME standards, processes, and best practices scalable across sites.
• Advise on make-vs-buy, capital investments, and production strategies.
• Drive MBOMs, tooling readiness, and rate-readiness across programs.

Skills

Aerospace manufacturing experience

Cross-functional leadership

Cost and budget management

Production readiness

Executive communications

Leadership of manufacturing teams

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Electrical, or Industrial Engineering

Tools

Teamcenter

SAP

Oracle

Job description

Senior Manager, Manufacturing Engineering - 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 and Strike Division is one of Anduril's fastest growing, most technically complex divisions. We develop and build collaborative combat aircraft, missiles, and the software that powers these autonomous weapons. We are scaling production of autonomous aircraft across our manufacturing facilities. Manufacturing Engineering drives process development, production readiness, and the transition from prototype to rate - ensuring that what Design engineers create can be built reliably, repeatedly, and at scale.

ABOUT THE JOB

Anduril is seeking a Senior Manager of Manufacturing Engineering to lead ME strategy and execution across the Autonomous Airpower portfolio. This is not a single-program role - you will be the manufacturing engineering voice across every aircraft program in the portfolio, from early concept through full-rate production. You will work directly with chief engineers, program managers, and the growth team to shape what gets built, how it gets built, and whether it can be built on cost and on schedule.

You are the first person from the ME organization that program managers and growth leads turn to when evaluating emerging capabilities. You provide the manufacturing perspective on what is realistic and achievable - grounding engineering ambitions in production reality. You understand every phase of the aircraft lifecycle: DFM input during design, participation in design reviews, prototype and first-article builds, LRIP standup, and the transition to full-rate production. You know what it takes to go from a clean-sheet aircraft concept to hardware rolling off a production line.

You will build and lead a team of manufacturing engineers, set the technical direction for the ME organization, and represent manufacturing engineering to directors and executives. This role requires someone who has lived aircraft manufacturing - not managed it from a distance - and who can move fluidly between a factory floor conversation and an executive review.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead manufacturing engineering strategy and execution across the full Autonomous Airpower portfolio, spanning multiple aircraft programs in various stages of maturity
• Serve as the primary ME point of contact for program managers and the growth team on emerging capabilities - providing early-stage assessments of manufacturability, cost, schedule, and production feasibility
• Partner with chief engineers and design leadership during all phases of engineering development, from concept trades and DFM input through design reviews, prototype builds, LRIP, and full-rate production
• Build, develop, and lead a high-performing team of manufacturing engineers across disciplines - structures, mechanical systems, fluid systems, propulsion, avionics, and harnessing
• Drive cross-functional alignment between engineering, supply chain, manufacturing operations, program management, quality, and leadership to ensure production readiness across programs
• Own the ME cost and schedule position for your portfolio - developing estimates, tracking execution, identifying risks, and presenting status to directors and executives
• Represent manufacturing engineering in executive reviews, program gate reviews, and customer-facing discussions, translating production realities into clear, actionable information for senior leadership
• Establish manufacturing engineering standards, processes, and best practices that scale across programs and production sites
• Evaluate and advise on make-vs-buy decisions, capital investments, and production strategies based on deep knowledge of aircraft manufacturing capabilities and constraints
• Drive production readiness across the portfolio - MBOMs, process maturity, tooling readiness, rate-readiness assessments - ensuring programs are set up to succeed at each production milestone

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Electrical, or Industrial Engineering
• 12+ years of manufacturing engineering experience in aerospace or defense, with significant time spent on aircraft programs
• Deep, hands-on knowledge of aircraft manufacturing across multiple disciplines - structures/composites, mechanical systems, fluid systems, avionics, harnessing, or propulsion
• Experience across the full aircraft production lifecycle: DFM, design reviews, prototype/first-article builds, LRIP, and full-rate production
• 5+ years of experience leading and developing manufacturing engineering teams
• Demonstrated ability to assess emerging programs and provide credible manufacturing cost, schedule, and feasibility inputs
• Experience presenting manufacturing status, risks, and recommendations to director-level and executive audiences
• Strong cross-functional leadership - proven ability to drive alignment across engineering, operations, supply chain, program management, and business leadership
• Experience managing manufacturing engineering budgets and cost positions across multiple programs
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience standing up new aircraft production lines from scratch - from facility planning through rate production
• Experience working directly with growth or business development teams to shape proposals and production strategies for new aircraft programs
• Experience with autonomous aircraft, UAV, or advanced air vehicle programs
• Knowledge of EVMS, earned value reporting, and program control fundamentals
• Experience with Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRL) and Manufacturing Readiness Assessments (MRA)
• Experience working with Teamcenter, SAP, Oracle, or similar PLM/ERP platforms
• Master's degree in Engineering, Business, or related field
• Active U.S. Secret security clearance

US Salary Range

$183,000 - $243,000 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 .