Naval Architect Co-op - Winter 2027

Naval Architect Co-op - Winter 2027

Costa Mesa, California, United States

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.

Anduril Maritime designs and builds the next generation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) from the ground up. The exceptionally large AUV program develops a large-displacement vehicle. Work with a small team of engineers who design, build, and test their own hardware.

What You'll Do You will own one or more scoped projects end to end, with mentor support, over the engagement. Candidate projects include:

• Hull form resistance study - Run parametric resistance analysis (Maxsurf or similar) on candidate hull variants. Deliverable: trade space of drag vs. displacement vs. speed across candidate geometries.
• Internal volume and arrangement trade study - Build a volume budget for planned payloads and subsystems against available hull volume, confirming the arrangement fits and the vehicle is hydrostatically supported (weight vs. displacement, longitudinal balance and trim). Deliverable: volume allocation budget, weight and buoyancy balance, and packing arrangement for a candidate vehicle configuration.
• Structural scantling analysis - Size primary structure (frames, shell plating, bulkheads) for a defined section of the vehicle to ABS or DNV rules. Deliverable: midship section drawing plus structural weight and material estimate.
• Stability and loading conditions - Develop the equilibrium polygon for a candidate vehicle configuration. Deliverable: surfaced GZ curves and submerged equilibrium polygon.
• Deployment / recovery system concept design - Mechanical and naval-architecture design for launch and recovery of a subsystem (buoy, UUV, or payload module). Deliverable: concept sketches, loads analysis, mechanism sizing.
• Propulsion system trade study - Compare propulsion architectures (electric drive, mechanical, hybrid) against program mission profiles. Deliverable: trade matrix scoring efficiency, weight, cost, and complexity.
• Producibility / manufacturing study - Assess hull fabrication approaches (plate cutting, forming, welding sequences) for a defined hull block. Deliverable: build strategy, production-hours estimate, tooling requirements.

Required Qualifications

• Pursuing a degree in naval architecture, marine engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related technical field
• Coursework or project experience in ship hydrostatics, resistance, structures, or stability
• Working knowledge of naval-architecture analysis tools (e.g., Maxsurf, Rhino, Orca3D, GHS, or equivalent)
• Ability to define and deliver a self-contained engineering artifact in 8 weeks with mentor support
• Hands-on experience building or testing hardware via any means (machining, fabrication, assembly, model building). Work on personal or extracurricular projects is a plus.
• U.S. Person status is required as this position needs to access export controlled data

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with classification society rules (ABS, DNV) for structural scantlings
• Experience with CAD (Solid Works, Rhino) and FEA for structural sizing
• Coursework or project work in submarine/AUV hydrodynamics, propulsion, or launch and recovery systems
• Software scripting experience in any language (Python, MATLAB)

US Salary Range

$40 - $40 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.

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…