Senior Manager, Test Operations, Space

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

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Top-tier benefits

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA is seeking a Senior Manager, Test Operations to lead the development and production testing across multiple space programs. You will build the test organization from the ground up, hire and grow a 40+ person team, define procedures, and ensure readiness for full-rate production as space vehicles ramp.

This is a build role with significant cross-functional collaboration and a focus on reducing test duration and cost while meeting safety and quality standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics or a related technical field.
• 10+ years in spacecraft or space vehicle integration and test, including 5+ years leading test engineers or technicians, and technical lead or manager on at least two complete environmental qualification or acceptance campaigns from procedure definition through data review and disposition.
• Hands-on ownership of at least three of: thermal vacuum, sine or random vibration, acoustic, shock, thermal cycling, EMI/EMC to MIL-STD-461 or equivalent.
• Managed a team of 10 or more engineers and/or technicians spanning at least two test domains - for example functional and electrical test plus environmental test, or test operations plus test station engineering.
• Working knowledge of a recognized space test standard such as SMC-S-016, GSFC-STD-7000 (GEVS) or MIL-STD-1540, including where you tailored it and why.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

Responsibilities

• Recruit, mentor and lead a multi-domain test organization spanning functional and electrical test, environmental test, test station and GSE engineering, and test operations - growing from initial hires toward a projected 40+ positions through the production ramp.
• Own the transfer of test knowledge, procedures and tooling from development-site test engineers into the production test team, including training, certification and proficiency standards for test engineers and technicians.
• Coordinate closely with Launch Operations stakeholders to ensure all System Test procedures, resources, and approval criteria are followed during launch campaigns. As needed, deployed Test personnel to support, train, and oversee launch operations to ensure compliance.
• Define and own vehicle-level and subassembly acceptance test procedures and qualification campaigns, including test flow, entrance and exit criteria, and data review gates.
• Lead Test Readiness Reviews and test campaign readiness assessments; serve as approval authority for test procedures run on flight hardware.
• Own environmental test execution - thermal vacuum, sine and random vibration, acoustic, shock, thermal cycling, and EMI/EMC - including chamber and table scheduling, fixture and instrumentation readiness, and anomaly disposition.
• Drive design-for-test requirements into vehicle, payload and subassembly designs before CDR, with the explicit objective of reducing test duration and test station count at rate.
• Challenge inherited test requirements: identify tests that can be combined, moved to a lower assembly level, automated, or eliminated at acceptable risk, and carry those cases through the requirement owners with data.
• Specify production environmental test capability - chamber count and size, vibration table capacity, EMI/EMC screen rooms - and own the test capacity model behind it.
• Represent test operations up and out: support proposal development and Basis of Estimate content for test scope, present at technical and milestone reviews, and brief customers and business line leadership on test readiness, capability and risk.

Skills

Test Operations Leadership

Space Vehicle Testing

Environmental Testing

Team Building

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics or related field

Tools

Test equipment

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

We are seeking a highly experienced and dynamic Senior Manager, Test Operations to lead our Development and Production Testing efforts across multiple critical space programs.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Anduril's Space business is standing up manufacturing and test for multiple space vehicle lines at once - moving from development builds today into full rate production within four years. The Senior Manager, Test Operations will build and lead the test organization that makes that ramp possible: vehicle and subassembly acceptance and qualification test, environmental test operations, test station and ground support equipment engineering, and the procedures and data systems behind them.

This is a build role, not a sustaining one. The production test organization does not exist yet - you will define it, hire it, and stand up its capability inside a new production facility whose environmental test infrastructure is still being defined. Test throughput and cost-effectiveness are the binding constraint on our production rate; architecture decisions defined today will have lasting impacts to production rate success.

Test Organization and Leadership

• Recruit, mentor and lead a multi-domain test organization spanning functional and electrical test, environmental test, test station and GSE engineering, and test operations - growing from initial hires toward a projected 40+ positions through the production ramp.
• Own the transfer of test knowledge, procedures and tooling from development-site test engineers into the production test team, including training, certification and proficiency standards for test engineers and technicians.
• Coordinate closely with Launch Operations stakeholders to ensure all System Test procedures, resources, and approval criteria are followed during launch campaigns. As needed, deployed Test personnel to support, train, and oversee launch operations to ensure compliance.

Test Campaign Definition and Execution

• Define and own vehicle-level and subassembly acceptance test procedures and qualification campaigns, including test flow, entrance and exit criteria, and data review gates.
• Lead Test Readiness Reviews and test campaign readiness assessments; serve as approval authority for test procedures run on flight hardware.
• Own environmental test execution - thermal vacuum, sine and random vibration, acoustic, shock, thermal cycling, and EMI/EMC - including chamber and table scheduling, fixture and instrumentation readiness, and anomaly disposition.

Design for Test

• Drive design-for-test requirements into vehicle, payload and subassembly designs before CDR, with the explicit objective of reducing test duration and test station count at rate.
• Challenge inherited test requirements: identify tests that can be combined, moved to a lower assembly level, automated, or eliminated at acceptable risk, and carry those cases through the requirement owners with data.

Capability, Facility and Rate

• Specify production environmental test capability - chamber count and size, vibration table capacity, EMI/EMC screen rooms - and own the test capacity model behind it.
• Represent test operations up and out: support proposal development and Basis of Estimate content for test scope, present at technical and milestone reviews, and brief customers and business line leadership on test readiness, capability and risk.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics or a related technical field.
• 10+ years in spacecraft or space vehicle integration and test, including 5+ years leading test engineers or technicians, and technical lead or manager on at least two complete environmental qualification or acceptance campaigns from procedure definition through data review and disposition.
• Hands-on ownership of at least three of: thermal vacuum, sine or random vibration, acoustic, shock, thermal cycling, EMI/EMC to MIL-STD-461 or equivalent.
• Managed a team of 10 or more engineers and/or technicians spanning at least two test domains - for example functional and electrical test plus environmental test, or test operations plus test station engineering.
• Working knowledge of a recognized space test standard such as SMC-S-016, GSFC-STD-7000 (GEVS) or MIL-STD-1540, including where you tailored it and why.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• A quantified improvement in test throughput or cycle time that you can explain mechanically - for example scaling test capacity by 3x or more, or reducing test flow duration by 20% or more.
• Authored or approved 10 or more test procedures executed on flight hardware.
• Has represented a test or manufacturing organization up and out: contributed to proposal and Basis of Estimate content, and briefed customers or executive leadership on readiness and risk. Both the written and the in-person sides matter here.
• Stood up an environmental test capability or a test organization from zero - chamber and table procurement, commissioning, facility interface, first-article campaigns.
• Took a spacecraft or complex electromechanical product from single-digit annual builds into rate production of 100+ units per year.
• Supported space vehicle test through to Launch and Operations
• Python scripting and test automation; experience with automated test execution and test data pipelines.
• Operated in both classified and unclassified cleanroom environments.
• Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Top Secret or U.S. Top Secret SCI security clearance

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.