Senior Software Engineer, Strategic Defense (Active Clearance) Software

Frontdoor Defense; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 166,000 - 292,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Competitive benefits

Travel opportunities

Job summary

Anduril Industries seeks a Senior Software Engineer in Strategic Defense to design and implement edge-deployed C2 software for national security missions. You will work with elite teams on autonomy, networking, and real-time systems, requiring an active clearance.

Position involves travel and collaboration across multiple disciplines. You will write production-grade software in C++, Rust, Go, or Python, owned end-to-end, and contribute to systems that operate at the edge of hardware and software

Qualifications

• Active US security clearance required or ability to maintain one.
• 3–12+ years writing production software in languages like C++, Rust, Go, or Python.
• Experience with edge deployments and C2 style software.
• Ability to explain tradeoffs to non-engineers.

Responsibilities

• Own software solutions deployed at the edge of innovation and necessity.
• Write robust code for C2 products and scale mission capabilities.
• Collaborate across engineering teams to plan, build, and test complex systems.
• Travel 10–30% to deploy capabilities in real-world environments.

Skills

Active clearance

3-12+ years experience

C++

Rust

Go

Python

Edge / C2 software

Networking

Real-time systems

Data processing

Education

Degree in Computer Science, Math, or Physics

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Strategic Defense (Active Clearance)

Lead development of edge-deployed C2 software for strategic defense missions

Location: Aberdeen, Maryland Colorado Springs, Colorado San Antonio, Texas Tampa, Florida

Compensation: $166,000 - 292,000 USD / year

About The Role

Software Engineer In Strategic Defense

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.

The Strategic Defense team at Anduril protects the United States and its allies from ballistic, hypersonic, and air-breathing threats. Those threats now arrive in seconds, maneuver mid-flight, and come in volleys designed to overwhelm the legacy systems meant to stop them — so we're building a software-defined command and control layer that can see, decide, and act faster than any human operator could alone. Our team spans autonomy, tracking, simulation and wargaming, hardware, systems engineering, and test and evaluation to build an accredited fire control system fielded rapidly and at scale. We are at the forefront of incubating and maturing AI-native offerings for the integrated air and missile defense domain.

We're hiring 10+ experienced coders with active clearance in strategic locations. We're looking for 3-12+ years of experience and the ability to complete live coding interviews unassisted by AI.

As a Software Engineer in Strategic Defense, you will write code side-by-side with elite peers to solve a wide variety of problems involving networking, autonomy, systems integration, robotics, and more. You'll make pragmatic engineering tradeoffs along the way to ensure Anduril products achieve a variety of desired outcomes in ambiguous situations where more is on the line than money or corporate gains. By working hand-in-hand with powerhouse teams in AI, Edge Hardware, Space Solutions, Networking, and Test Engineering you will craft cutting-edge, end-to-end systems that redefine mission success for major strategic capabilities.

Own software solutions that are deployed to customers at the edge of innovation and necessity

Write code to improve robust C2 products and scale mission capabilities to broaden our impact

Collaborate across multiple engineering teams to plan, build, and test functionality of complex systems

Partner with end-users to turn needs into features quickly while balancing user experience and engineering constraints

Travel 10 - 30% with the team to build, test, and deploy capabilities in the real world where they're needed most

Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance (or higher)

3-12+ years writing production software in languages like C++, Rust, Go, or Python that real users or systems depend on

You've owned a feature or service end-to-end including design, implementation, deployment, and dealing with it when it breaks

You've debugged problems in code you didn't write and systems you didn't design

You're comfortable making engineering decisions with incomplete requirements and revisiting them when reality disagrees

You can explain technical tradeoffs to people who aren't software engineers (operators, hardware engineers, customers)

A desire to work on critical software that has a real-world impact

Exposure to robotics, distributed systems, networking, or real-time systems

Experience with mid and upper tier Air Defense Command and Control (C2) programs

Have worked where software touches physical hardware

Experience building software solutions involving significant amounts of data processing and analysis

Degree in a relevant field like Computer Science, Math, or Physics

Willing to travel up to 20% to Asia Pacific

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:

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.

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