Senior Payloads Lead, Autonomous Aerial Systems

Anduril Industries, Inc.; Costa Mesa, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 191,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Benefits package

Job summary

Anduril Industries is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer - Payloads Lead to join the Maneuver Dominance team at our Costa Mesa HQ. You will own the payloads portfolio across the Thunder platform, leading payload and weapon integration teams and aligning capabilities with vehicle and mission software.

As the Payload Lead, you will manage staffing, prioritization, and delivery across the payloads org, serving as the technical relationship owner with external suppliers. Up to 25% travel is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s/Master’s/PhD in engineering with progressive leadership experience.
• Experience leading multiple engineering teams or a multi-team org.
• Hands-on MIL-STD 1553 and/or MIL-STD 1760 interfaces.
• Experience integrating weapons, payloads, or avionics onto aircraft.
• U.S. Person status with eligibility for Top Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own payloads architecture and roadmap across all weapon and payload systems.
• Lead multiple payload integration teams and drive cross-team interfaces.
• Develop program plans, estimates, and schedules for payloads.
• Coordinate with Mission Systems and Mission Autonomy leads for alignment.
• Represent payloads in technical reviews and with suppliers.

Skills

Team leadership

Payload integration

MIL-STD interfaces

Customer relationship management

C++, MATLAB, Python

Education

Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in engineering or CS

Tools

NX/Teamcenter

Solidworks

SysML/Cameo/Jama

Job description

Anduril Industries is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer - Payloads Lead to join the Maneuver Dominance team at our Costa Mesa HQ. You will own the payloads portfolio across the Thunder platform, leading payload and weapon integration teams and aligning capabilities with vehicle and mission software.

As the Payload Lead, you will manage staffing, prioritization, and delivery across the payloads org, serving as the technical relationship owner with external suppliers. Up to 25% travel is required.