Staff Gen AI Research Scientist

Anduril Industries, Inc.; Costa Mesa, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 220,000 - 292,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries, Inc. is seeking an AI Research Scientist in Costa Mesa, CA to design, train, and deploy next-generation generative AI, LLMs, and agentic systems powering edge-enabled platforms.

The role blends applied research (about 60%) with hands-on coding (about 40%), providing autonomy to set technical direction, data-collection strategies, and multi-agent deployment for critical missions.

Qualifications

• Strong production-level coding skills in Python and deep learning frameworks (like PyTorch or JAX).
• Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, and evaluating LLMs, Generative AI, or multimodal models.
• A strong background in Computer Vision, NLP, Robotics, or Speech with 2+ years on generative models and transformers.

Responsibilities

• Build, pre-train, and fine-tune in-house LLMs and multimodal models; apply SOTA post-training alignment techniques.
• Deploy models on edge compute hardware; optimize latency, memory, and speed via quantization, distillation, and pruning.
• Design agentic architectures and multi-agent coordination for complex missions.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

JAX

LLM Training & Fine-Tuning

Transformer Architectures

Education

Bachelor's / Master's / PhD in CS/ML/Robotics

Tools

Axolotl

Hugging Face

DeepSpeed

Megatron-LM

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Job description

Costa Mesa, California, United States; Seattle, Washington, United States; Washington, District of Columbia, United States

ABOUT THE TEAM

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 JOB

We are seeking an AI Research Scientist to serve as a founding ML expert on our team. In this role, you will design, fine-tune, and deploy the next generation of generative AI, LLMs, and agentic systems that power our air-dominance platforms and collaborative autonomous behaviors.

This isa highly appliedresearch role (splitroughly60%applied research/experimentation and40% hands-on coding) focused on makingstate-of-the-artLLMmodels smaller, faster, and smarter. You will work on both offboard systems (for complex mission planning, modeling, and simulation) and onboard systems—optimizingmodels to run directly on power- and compute-constrained edge hardware. As an early member of this initiative, you will have significant autonomy to set the technical direction, design our data collection strategy across test sites and simulations, and directly influence how multi-agent autonomy is deployed in critical missions.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Build & Fine-Tune Core Models: Develop, pre-train, and fine-tune in-house LLMs and multimodal foundation models. Apply SOTA post-training alignment techniques (SFT, RLHF, DPO) to maximize capability while minimizing cost and footprint.
• Deploy at the Edge: Architect and optimize models to run directly on tactical edge compute and power-constrained hardware onboard physical assets. Optimize model latency, memory usage, and execution speed through quantization, distillation, and pruning.
• Develop Agentic Workflows: Design and implement robust agentic architectures, multi-agent coordination frameworks, and planning loops for complex, multi-domain military missions.
• Drive Multimodal Sensor Integration: Collaborate closely with computer vision, perception, and motion planning teams to build systems capable of reasoning over diverse modalities, including camera feeds, radar, telemetry, and text-based operational orders.
• Shape Data & Evaluation Strategies: Define and execute data collection strategies across physical assets, test sites, and virtual simulations. Work with AI Infrastructure engineers to build scalable evaluation frameworks that measure model performance, reliability, and safety in high-stakes environments.
• Rapid Prototyping to Production: Build early-stage prototypes alongside customers, quickly iterate on feedback, and scale those prototypes into production-grade features deployed across our family of systems.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Core Engineering Strength: Strong production-level coding skills in Python and deep learning frameworks (likePyTorchor JAX).
• ML & LLM Expertise: Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, and evaluating LLMs, Generative AI, or multimodal models.
• Solid Foundation: A strong background in a classical technical discipline (Computer Vision, NLP, Robotics, or Speech) with 2+ years of dedicated experience focusing on generative models and modern transformer architectures.
• Tooling Familiarity: Experience using modern model training, alignment, and orchestration tools (e.g., Axolotl, Hugging Face,DeepSpeed, Megatron-LM,LangChain, orLlamaIndex).
• Problem-Solving & Adaptability: Ability tooperatecomfortably in a fast-paced environment, moving from ambiguous mission requirements to concrete code and functional prototypes.
• Academic/Industry Background: Degree (B.S., M.S., or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, Physics, Mathematics, or a related technical field.
• Clearance Eligibility: Eligible to obtain andmaintainan active U.S. Top Secret security clearance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Edge Deployment Experience: Proventrack recordof compiling and running deep learning models on edge accelerators (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson, custom TPUs/ASICs) under severe power and compute constraints.
• Advanced Alignment Experience: Hands-on experience implementing Reinforcement Learning from Human/AI Feedback (RLHF/RLAIF) or direct preference optimization (DPO) loops.
• Multimodal Experience: Experience working with multimodal architectures (VLM, video-to-text, or sensor fusion) and diffusion models.
• AI-Powered Products at Scale: Experience building and shipping AI-powered products used by millions of users, with a deep understanding of the end-to-end lifecycle from research prototype to production deployment.
• Applying AI to Novel Domains: Track record of successfully applying AI/ML technologies to novel problems and domains where established approaches do not yet exist,demonstratingcreativity and first-principles thinking.
• Continuous Learning & Field Awareness: Proven ability to rapidly learnnew technologiesand stay current with the fast-evolving AI landscape—regularly engaging with the latest research, tools, and techniques through publications, conferences, and the open-source community.

US Salary Range

$220,000 - $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 .