Programs Chief Engineer, Dive XLActive$336K

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U. S.

What you'll do

• 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.

What they're looking for

• 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.