Programs Chief Engineer

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, 3‑D 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.

We are looking for a Chief Engineer to lead the technical vision, architecture, and execution for our Dive‑XL autonomous underwater system within a major US undersea defense program. As the Chief Engineer, you will be the single point of technical accountability for the Dive‑XL system, bridging hardware, software, and operational domains to deliver robust, reliable, and high‑performing systems to the warfighter.

As a Program Chief Engineer you will be responsible for defining and driving the system’s architecture, technical roadmap, and overall engineering excellence. You will lead a multi‑disciplinary team of high‑performing engineers, ensuring that the system meets stringent performance, reliability, and mission requirements in challenging maritime environments. This role combines strategic technical leadership with direct hands‑on involvement in critical design and integration challenges.

• Technical Leadership & Vision: Define and articulate the technical vision and strategic roadmap for the system, ensuring alignment with Anduril’s broader Dive‑XL Core Platform and customer needs. Work directly with the product team (Product Manager, EPM, Lead Systems Engineer) to ensure tactical development is executed on plan.
• Architectural Design Authority: Serve as the ultimate technical authority for the system architecture, design decisions, and critical trade‑offs across all engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, software, autonomy, acoustics, materials).
• System Integration & Performance: Oversee the end‑to‑end development lifecycle, from requirements definition and conceptual design through detailed design, integration, test, and deployment.
• Test & Evaluation: Define and oversee the test and evaluation strategy, including acceptance criteria, test readiness reviews, and support to customer acceptance testing.
• Technical Problem Solving: Lead the resolution of complex technical challenges, acting as a hands‑on expert and guiding teams through difficult design, integration, or operational issues.
• Technical Trade‑offs: Drive build vs. buy decisions, manage technical debt, and balance speed of delivery against long‑term system sustainability.
• Team Mentorship & Development: Provide technical mentorship, guidance, and critical review for engineering teams, fostering a culture of innovation, excellence, and rigorous problem‑solving.
• Risk and Opportunity Management: Identify, assess, and mitigate technical risks throughout the program lifecycle, developing contingency plans and advising program leadership.
• Customer & Stakeholder Engagement: Act as a primary technical point of contact for internal stakeholders, customers, and partners. Clearly communicate complex technical information, program status, and strategic direction. Manage cross‑team technical dependencies to ensure timely delivery of key capabilities, and shield the engineering team from scope disruption.
• Cross‑Site Coordination: Collaborate closely with the AU Chief Engineer counterpart to ensure technical alignment across program variants, share lessons learned, and maintain architectural consistency.
• Requirements Management: Ensure robust requirements decomposition, traceability, and verification plans are in place for all subsystems.
• Innovation & Research: Stay abreast of cutting‑edge technologies, research, and industry trends relevant to autonomous underwater systems, incorporating best practices and…