Mechanical Engineer, Lead

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 Tactical Recon & Strike team at Anduril develops aerial small drones (Group 1-3) and all equipment to test, deploy and operate. The team is responsible for taking products like Ghost, Anvil, Bolt and Altius from concepts to operational systems. We work in close coordination with specialist teams to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers. We are looking for software engineers, hardware engineers, roboticists, and front-end mobile developers who are excited about creating a powerful robotics platform that can be tasked and viewed in real-time through a variety of interfaces.

ABOUT THE JOB

Anduril is seeking a Mechanical Engineer, Lead to join the team at our Costa Mesa HQ. Here you will lead core product development for drones and complex systems, including but not limited to optical gimbals, batteries, mechanisms, structures, sensors and payloads. This role requires expert-level ownership of complete product integration and execution, with strategic influence across multiple teams and disciplines. The ideal candidate would be a technical leader who drives adoption of new methodologies, provides deep expertise, and sets the standard for technical excellence. High growth potential is possible as well as additional leadership opportunities.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own complete integration and execution of complex products and product families from concept to full rate production

• Drive the work of technical teams through technical leadership, mentorship, and strategic direction

• Drive overall goals for product success through leadership and direction across disciplines

• Identify needs and gaps, then define best practices and standards and deploy those broadly across the organization

• Lead design reviews and drive buy-in from cross-disciplinary partners, serving as a trusted advisor

• Provide technical guidance and leadership to multi-disciplinary teams, shaping project direction and ensuring alignment with organizational goals

• Perform advanced hand calculations and FEA to develop, assess, and optimize designs with engineering judgment appropriate to product maturity

• Build prototypes, define and execute hardware test plans, iterate on designs, and produce authoritative technical documentation summarizing results

• Perform root cause investigations for hardware failures and proactively identify and resolve conflicts in both technical and programmatic challenges

• Balance operational needs across vehicle subsystems while optimizing for development speed, mass, manufacturability, cost, and long-term sustainment

• Lead adoption of new tools, methodologies, and manufacturing methods for step-function improvements

• Mentor engineers across teams and influence organizational technical strategy

• Support critical hardware demonstrations with customers as needed

• Travel to test sites and vendors as needed

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years of progressive mechanical/design experience, including 3+ years in technical leadership roles managing engineering teams

• Demonstrated wholistic ownership of challenging technical problems and multiple complete products or product families from concept through production

• Experience scaling and shipping complex products

• Expert CAD skills with exceptional quality suitable as templates and training materials

• Expertise in structures, thermal management, and mechanisms, with depth in electrical integration

• Proven ability to set the standard for technical work within a group

• Expert in standard manufacturing methods with capability to explore adjacent fields, including designing for manufacturability and scale

• Strong engineering judgment to right-size solutions based on product maturity

• Demonstrated ability to understand and communicate the full picture of technical value in terms of finance, impact, and position to the business

• Excellence in delivering clear, complex ideas in writing and speech through polished technical documents, reports, and presentations

• Proven track record of mentoring multiple teams and driving cross-functional initiatives

• Ability to drive technical work through influence and leadership, with potential to transition into people management roles

• BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent work experience

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Expert proficiency in Solidworks or NX, and PLM systems

• Mastery of GD&T application and ability to define standards for others

• Deep expertise in multiple manufacturing methods: CNC machining, composites, sheet metal, injection molding, PCBA integration, with ability to lead adoption of new methods

• Exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to influence across the organization

• Experience authoring responses to RFIs, proposals to customers and agencies, or white papers

• Extensive experience running qualification campaigns for flight hardware

• Expert-level experience designing for rugged environments

• Strong understanding of electro-mechanical and electrical design concepts

• Significant depth in one or two focus areas of Mechanical Engineering, building towards becoming an expert

• Experience driving technological advancement towards future product families

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:

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.

Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams

Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've observed a rise in sophisticated phishing and fraudulent schemes where individuals impersonate Anduril representatives, luring job seekers with false interviews or job offers. These scammers often attempt to extract payment or sensitive personal information.

To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:

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No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.

• Please always verify communications:

• Direct from Anduril: If you receive an email from one of our recruiters, it will only come from an @anduril.com address.

• Via Agency Partner: If contacted by a recruiting agency for an Anduril role, their email will clearly identify their agency. If you suspect any suspicious activity, please verify the agency's authenticity by reaching out to contact@anduril.com.

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Exercise Caution with Unsolicited Outreach: If you receive any communication that appears suspicious, contains grammatical errors, or makes unusual requests, do not engage. Always confirm the sender's email domain is @anduril.com before providing any personal information or clicking on links.

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What to Do If You Suspect Fraud: Should you encounter any questionable or fraudulent outreach claiming to be from Anduril, please report it immediately to contact@anduril.com. Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.

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.