Program Chief Engineer

About the Role

As a Program Chief Engineer you will be responsible for defining and driving the systems 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.

This is a highly visible and impactful role where your deep technical expertise strategic thinking and leadership will directly contribute to delivering transformative capabilities for national security.

What Youll Do

• Technical Leadership & Vision: Define and articulate the technical vision and strategic roadmap for the system ensuring alignment with Andurils 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 US 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 innovative solutions.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelors Masters or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering Electrical Engineering Aerospace Engineering Robotics Computer Science or a related technical discipline.
• 15 years of experience in the design development integration and deployment of complex autonomous systems.
• 5 years of demonstrated experience as a Chief Engineer Technical Director Lead Architect Engineering Fellow or equivalent senior technical leadership role on a major hardware/software program.
• Proficiency in systems engineering principles including requirements management interface control verification and validation.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor highly technical multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
• Exceptional communication presentation and interpersonal skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain an Australian National Security Clearance (NV2 or higher).

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise across multiple AUV sub-domains such as:
• Hydrodynamics & Propulsion: Vehicle dynamics control systems thrusters.
• Power Systems: Battery technologies power management high-voltage systems.
• Underwater Acoustics & Communications: Modems sonar acoustic navigation.
• Navigation & Perception: INS/GPS-denied navigation vision systems object detection/avoidance.
• Autonomy & Control: Mission planning decision-making algorithms real-time control.
• Materials Science & Corrosion: Marine-grade materials anti-corrosion techniques.
• Mechanical Design: Pressure hulls payloads articulation.
• Software Architectures: Embedded systems real-time operating systems distributed systems.
• Active Australian National Security Clearance (NV2 or higher).
• Experience with the full lifecycle of Australian Defence Force (ADF) acquisition programs.
• Demonstrated understanding of Australian defence contracting frameworks (e.g. ASDEFCON) or equivalent international defence acquisition standards particularly as they relate to technical requirements risk management and program execution.
• Experience with system safety engineering practices (e.g. MIL-STD-882) and familiarity with submarine/AUV safety certification processes.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity best practices for autonomous systems.
• Expertise in AI/ML applications for AUV autonomy perception and decision-making.
• Experience with advanced manufacturing techniques for marine systems.

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 Andurils 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 youre 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. Weve 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:

• 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 @ 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 agencys authenticity by reaching out to .

• 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 senders email domain is @ before providing any personal information or clicking on links.

• 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. Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.

Data Privacy

To view Andurils candidate data privacy policy please visit 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.

Required Experience:

Chief

Employment Type : Full Time
Experience: years
Vacancy: 1