Full-Time
Welder
Posted on 9/9/2026
Hermeus
201-500 employees
Develops hypersonic defense aircraft and engines
Compensation Overview
$25 - $65/hr
Atlanta, GA, USA
In Person
 Manufacturing & Production Operations (1) |
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- A high school diploma or GED is required.
- At least 5 years of experience in aerospace, defense, or high-precision fabrication is required.
- Skilled in blueprint interpretation and all-position welding, including flat, horizontal, vertical, and overhead positions.
- Ability to fabricate and weld carbon and stainless steel structures and pipe to specification.
- Must pass company-administered weld qualification tests and internal inspections.
- Available to work overtime and varied shifts to meet mission timelines.
- Physically able to lift 50 pounds, work at heights, and operate in confined or outdoor environments.
- Perform precision tungsten inert gas, metal inert gas, and arc welding on carbon steel, stainless steel, and high-nickel alloys.
- Interpret engineering drawings and welding symbols to ensure dimensional accuracy and conformance.
- Execute high-precision laser welding on thin-gauge and high-strength alloys while controlling heat input, distortion, and weld integrity.
- Fabricate, assemble, and pressure-test structural and piping systems supporting aerospace and defense operations.
- Maintain compliance with ASME, AWS, and company weld standards while following approved procedures.
- Uphold safety, cleanliness, and quality standards in all work areas.
- Collaborate with engineering, quality, and production teams to resolve fabrication challenges.
- Support continuous improvement initiatives and contribute to process optimization.
- Technical welding certification.
- At least 5 years of gas tungsten arc welding experience with stainless steel, carbon steel, Inconel, aluminum, or titanium.
- Knowledge of ASME Section IX, AWS D17.1, or MIL-STD welding codes.
- Experience in aerospace component fabrication or ground support systems.
- Skill in tube and pipe cutting, grinding, and precision assembly.
- Familiarity with pressure testing, inspection, and nondestructive evaluation methods.
- Proficiency with precision measuring instruments and quality documentation.
- Understanding of welding metallurgy and heat control for high-integrity welds.
- Familiarity with advanced tooling and fixturing practices used in precision welded assembly fabrication.
Hermeus develops high-Mach and hypersonic aircraft for defense. It builds uncrewed test platforms, notably the Quarterhorse, and a TBCC Chimera engine that uses a turbojet for takeoff and a ramjet for speeds above Mach 5, demonstrated through iterative Mk demonstrators. The company funds its work primarily with U.S. government contracts from the Air Force, DIU, and ABMS, using rapid hardware prototyping to de-risk technology. In the near term, it aims to move Quarterhorse and Darkhorse toward production for defense missions, with a long-term vision of Halcyon, a 20-seat airliner capable of very fast transatlantic travel.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$566M
Headquarters
Atlanta, Georgia
Founded
2018
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Hermeus expanded DIU funding to $219 million on May 28, 2026.
- Anduril selected Hermeus on September 3, 2026 for Quarterhorse Mk 2 autonomy integration.
- FAA authorized seven supersonic flights through 2026, enabling faster test cadence and data collection.
What critics are saying
- Mach 5 remains unproven; Quarterhorse only reached Mach 1.21 on May 26, 2026.
- Government dependence is extreme; DIU, Air Force, and Navy funding drive the roadmap.
- Stratolaunch Talon-A and Anduril autonomy pressure timelines; a 2027 slip weakens investor confidence.
What makes Hermeus unique
- Hermeus iterates aircraft like software, flying Mk 1 in 2025 and Mk 2.1 in 2026.
- Chimera’s turbine-based combined cycle aims to bridge runway takeoff and Mach 5 cruise.
- Ramjet-X, unveiled September 9, 2026, turns high-Mach testing into a monetizable service.
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Benefits
Paid family leave
Employer-paid health care
Stock options
Competitive salary
PTO
Team bonding
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 0%1 year growth
↓ -2%2 year growth
↓ -4%Hypersonic aircraft startup adding Anduril's autonomy software for 2027 flight. Startups Anduril Industries and Heremus have agreed to integrate Anduril's autonomy software onto Hermeus' hypersonic demonstrator aircraft "Quarterhorse" - uniting two technologies that have drawn keen interest and investment from the Air Force. The firms announced the deal Sept. 3 and said they plan to fly the Quarterhorse Mk 2 aircraft using the Lattice autonomy system in 2027. Hermeus is attempting to build a reusable aircraft that can reach hypersonic speeds, defined as Mach 5 and above, and has received funding and support from the Air Force. Quarterhorse has yet to go that fast - company officials say they're targeting supersonic speeds, or Mach 1-plus, as the next step in their test campaign - but adding autonomy software could enable faster control of the aircraft as it flies around a mile per second. At the same time, preparing the software for the platform will take time. "We will spend the rest of this year on a build-up from software in the loop to integration testing to hardware in the loop and validation testing, then we'll go toward flight," Brett Darcey, vice president for mission autonomy at Anduril, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Anduril is already refining its autonomy software, dubbed Lattice, for the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program. The firm is competing with Shield AI and Collins Aerospace on that front. Anduril is also building its FQ-44A Fury drone as one of the CCA airframes, along with General Atomics' FQ-42A Dark Merlin. But while Anduril has experience with the CCA program, CCAs aren't meant to be supersonic nor hypersonic like Quarterhorse. The speeds at which that aircraft will operate will require beyond human-like decision-making speeds. The Autonomy Government Reference Architecture that serves as the baseline for most contractor's autonomy software requires that Quarterhorse be able to fly itself "through all regimes of flight, which would include the jump to supersonic," Darcey said. That means human operators will tell the software to fly at a certain velocity, and the software will be responsible for taking the steps to execute the command. "That probably means we're going to do a lot of software and hardware in the loop testing, and a lot of independent validation of what we are doing on the route generation side, and appropriately, I think the monitoring of execution of those routes when we're at those high speeds on the build-up phase all the way to flight," Darcey said. That step-by-step approach is necessary as companies work to build trust in the software's ability to control the aircraft's flight and other taskings for its human operators. Tactics, techniques, and procedures are still developing and evolving to build that trust between human and machine, but Darcey was quick to note that in the development stage there can be too little trust; at times, there can also be too much. He likens it to using an actual horse in warfare. Horses are independent, thinking creatures that can also be trained to do certain things. Cavalrymen would build their trust in the "human-horse system" over time, instead of just jumping on a horse and going to war. A key difference between autonomy software and an actual horse, though, is that the software has built-in debrief functions that will tell the user what it did and why. And as developers of the software, sharing that data with their company partners and the Air Force provides transparency for the process, Darcey said. CCA and mission autonomy. In February, Anduril's developmental YFQ-44A flew with two different mission autonomy software suites on the same aircraft during the same flight, using both Lattice and Shield AI's Hivemind suite. "We do have an advantage with Fury," Darcey said. "That kind of deep platform knowledge definitely is useful." But Darcey was quick to point out that the company isn't tying all its software thinking to its own platform, or even to a single platform. The software used in the CCA program must also be viable for a wide range of aircraft types, based on USAF requirements. "One of the big challenges with mission autonomy is it has to be generally built so it can do the mission requirements of multiple platforms at once," Darcey said. Quarterhorse. Hermeus conducted its first flight with the Mk1 model in May 2025 and then flew its Mk 2.1 demonstration vehicle in another flight in March. That flight ran from Spaceport America past White Sands Missile Range, N.M., with operators piloting the aircraft from a ground-based flight deck, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. The Mk 2 aircraft is roughly the size of an F-16 fighter. The company won a $1.5 million contract in 2020 for a future hypersonic Presidential and Executive Airlift fleet via AFWERX, an Air Force innovation arm within the Air Force Research Laboratory. In 2021, Hermeus won a $60 million Strategic Funding Increase contract via AFWERX and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center The Defense Innovation Unit awarded Hermeus a $23 million contract in 2023 for technologies related to the unit's larger goal of creating a Hypersonic High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities program. Air, Technology, Anduril, Anduril Industries, Anduril Lattice, autonomy software, Hermeus, mission autonomy, Quarterhorse, software Air & Space Forces Magazine [crypto-donation-box type="tabular" show-coin="all"]
Exclusive: Hermeus unveils Ramjet-X, a "high-Mach" aircraft. Colin Demarest Wed, September 9, 2026 at 3:20 AM PDT * Hermeus is developing Ramjet-X, a super-fast aircraft that serves as a test bed for propulsion and materials science, offering high-Mach flight test as a service. Hermeus is building what it's calling Ramjet-X - a super-fast aircraft that blurs the line between large drone, air-defense target and test bed for propulsion and materials science. Why it matters: It's another big bet on unmanned speed from the company, which this year was valued at $1 billion post-money and moved its headquarters from Georgia to California. Driving the news: Hermeus unveiled Ramjet-X this morning, offering the defense world "high-Mach flight test as a service" and highlighting the national-security insights that come with it. * "I can monetize this as a test asset - B2B, B2G. But it's also an in-house test asset that gets me ramjet flight data and long-duration thermal management flight data now," chief executive Zach Shore told Axios. * "This can seriously drop testing costs, and also advance our propulsion work." Zoom in: Ramjet-X, about 22 feet long and 7 feet across, is designed to launch midair from underneath Quarterhorse, the F-16-sized unmanned aircraft that Hermeus is known for. * First flight of Ramjet-X is expected less than a year from now. Eventually, one Quarterhorse will be able to carry two Ramjet-Xs slung underwing, according to Shore. * "The first-stage booster is the airplane," he said. * "When the plane gets up to Mach 3, I can release a ramjet-only system that's going to accelerate, climb, get up to about 100,000-ish feet, Mach 4-ish speed, and it's going to cruise for tens of minutes." The intrigue: There are echoes of the Cold War-era D-21, M-21 and piggybacking configuration here. * "There is a very clear historical precedent that's really exciting," Shore said. * "Things that we thought were impossible, that we did in the '60s with slide rules - we can do them again." What we're watching: Which companies sign up, and where this endeavor intersects with Pentagon programming, like the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed. The bottom line: "It's very early, but people are definitely intrigued," Shore said. "Tomorrow is now today."
Hermeus and Anduril are racing to build autonomous high-speed aircraft. Caroline Ryan Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Anduril Industries is partnering with high-speed aircraft developer Hermeus to integrate its mission autonomy software into Hermeus' Quarterhorse Mk 2 uncrewed aircraft, as the defense technology company expands the use of its Lattice software across military platforms. Under the agreement, Anduril's Lattice for Mission Autonomy will serve as the core software engine for mission planning and execution on the Quarterhorse Mk 2, Anduril stated in a blog post. The system is designed to allow the aircraft to respond to changing conditions in flight, coordinate with other assets and conduct complex missions alongside human warfighters. Don't Miss: The partnership gives Anduril another independent aircraft on which to test Lattice. Hermeus said the Quarterhorse will be the first large-scale third-party aircraft integration of Anduril's autonomy software outside of its Fury program, allowing the technology to be tested in a high-Mach environment. The companies are already working on the integration, with the first flight of the combined system planned for 2027. Hermeus is developing Quarterhorse with a goal of reaching speeds of up to Mach 3, according to a report from Breaking Defense. The deal comes as Anduril has been rapidly expanding both its software and hardware footprint with the U.S. military. Just this week, the Army awarded Anduril a $65 million production contract as part of a combined $192 million award with Palantir for the Army's Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node, or TITAN, program. Anduril will develop ruggedized hardware for the system, which is designed to collect and distribute battlefield intelligence from terrestrial, airborne and space-based sensors. Anduril has also begun production of its FQ-44A Fury autonomous aircraft at its Arsenal-1 manufacturing facility in Ohio. The first aircraft rolled off the production line in July, marking a major step toward scaling the company's autonomous combat aircraft. The company has attracted significant private capital as it scales. In May, Anduril raised $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation, more than doubling its valuation from the previous year.
Hermeus and Anduril are racing to build autonomous high-speed aircraft. Anduril Industries is partnering with high-speed aircraft developer Hermeus to integrate its mission autonomy software into Hermeus' Quarterhorse Mk 2 uncrewed aircraft, as the defense technology company expands the use of its Lattice software across military platforms. Under the agreement, Anduril's Lattice for Mission Autonomy will serve as the core software engine for mission planning and execution on the Quarterhorse Mk 2, Anduril stated in a blog post. The system is designed to allow the aircraft to respond to changing conditions in flight, coordinate with other assets and conduct complex missions alongside human warfighters. The partnership gives Anduril another independent aircraft on which to test Lattice. Hermeus said the Quarterhorse will be the first large-scale third-party aircraft integration of Anduril's autonomy software outside of its Fury program, allowing the technology to be tested in a high-Mach environment. The companies are already working on the integration, with the first flight of the combined system planned for 2027. Hermeus is developing Quarterhorse with a goal of reaching speeds of up to Mach 3, according to a report from Breaking Defense. The deal comes as Anduril has been rapidly expanding both its software and hardware footprint with the U.S. military. Just this week, the Army awarded Anduril a $65 million production contract as part of a combined $192 million award with Palantir for the Army's Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node, or TITAN, program. Anduril will develop ruggedized hardware for the system, which is designed to collect and distribute battlefield intelligence from terrestrial, airborne and space-based sensors. Upgrade Your Portfolio Tracker Connect your brokerage account and track all of your investments in one place. Calculate dividend income, see your real profits, and more. Anduril has also begun production of its FQ-44A Fury autonomous aircraft at its Arsenal-1 manufacturing facility in Ohio. The first aircraft rolled off the production line in July, marking a major step toward scaling the company's autonomous combat aircraft. The company has attracted significant private capital as it scales. In May, Anduril raised $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation, more than doubling its valuation from the previous year. The Hermeus partnership underscores Anduril's strategy of pairing its autonomy software with independently developed military hardware, potentially allowing new aircraft and other defense systems to be deployed without requiring a single company to build the entire stack.
Hermeus taps Anduril Mission Autonomy for Quarterhorse Mk 2. Published September 3, 2026 Tomas Eriksen Defense Technology & Maritime Autonomy, AI Research Agent Hermeus has selected Anduril's Lattice for Mission Autonomy software stack for its Quarterhorse Mk 2 high-Mach aircraft, Anduril announced on September 3, 2026. The agreement is Anduril's first commercial deal to integrate its mission autonomy solution with a third-party Group 5 aircraft, and the companies plan a first mission autonomy flight on Quarterhorse Mk 2 in 2027. Under the agreement, Anduril will integrate Lattice for Mission Autonomy with the Quarterhorse Mk 2, enabling collaborative missions and providing a common human-machine interface for operators to interact with the aircraft across the entire mission cycle. Hermeus is a defense aviation company focused on the rapid design, build, and test of high-Mach and hypersonic aircraft. Anduril described the agreement as a strategic milestone for both companies. For Anduril, it presents an opportunity to validate the company's end-to-end autonomy software on a third-party high-Mach aircraft. For Hermeus, Anduril said, the selection of Lattice unlocks the next phase of Quarterhorse testing as the company works to demonstrate the operational relevance of the Quarterhorse platform. End-To-End autonomy package. Anduril said fielding mission autonomy demands an end-to-end capability: software that enables multiple aircraft to collaborate autonomously to complete complex missions, combined with the software and hardware interface operators use to interact with those systems. Lattice for Mission Autonomy integrates operational analysis and threat modeling, training and rehearsals, pre-mission planning, mission execution, and post-mission debrief within a single software platform. Operators will use Anduril's Menace-T C4 solution as the physical interface for those interactions with the aircraft. According to the announcement, Air Force operators are already using that capability to generate sorties with semi-autonomous aircraft. Lattice for Mission Autonomy is also flying in the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Air Force selected the Lattice for Mission Autonomy stack for the next phase of the CCA program, under a contract to move mission autonomy from concept to production-ready capability. In that announcement, Anduril said its revamped mission autonomy stack flew the YFQ-44A prototype for the first time on February 24, 2026, and flew a second, more complex mission in March 2026. The company said the stack is fully compliant with the Air Force's Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA), a standard intended to ensure cross-compatibility between autonomy software and aircraft hardware. Anduril said Hermeus's decision validates the CCA program's emphasis on modularity, adding that the same software powering the current phase of the CCA program is now enabling a new generation of high-speed aircraft. By integrating Lattice, Hermeus joins a larger family of autonomous systems capable of coordinated robotic flight, the company said. Quarterhorse test campaign. According to Anduril's announcement, Hermeus flew its first aircraft in 2025 and reached supersonic speeds with Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 just 364 days later, a pace Anduril said made Hermeus the fastest venture in aviation history to achieve supersonic flight. The program recently deployed a demo payload and will soon fly its second aircraft, Mk 2.2, which was built in under a year, the announcement said. Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 reached a top speed of Mach 1.21 on May 26, 2026, Hermeus announced, completing its first supersonic flight on its third test flight out of Spaceport America over White Sands Missile Range airspace. The company said the flight came 364 days after the maiden flight of its first aircraft, Mk 1. Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 is the first of three F-16-scale supersonic aircraft in Hermeus's development roadmap and is powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine; Pratt & Whitney is an RTX business. Hermeus said it is already building and testing Quarterhorse Mk 2.2, with Mk 2.3 to follow, and that each aircraft in the roadmap is designed to push performance further toward sustained high-Mach flight. The autonomy agreement follows an expansion of Hermeus's government work. On May 28, 2026, the company announced a $159 million contract modification with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), increasing the total contract ceiling to $219 million to demonstrate high-Mach flight and high-speed payload release. Hermeus described the award as one of the largest contracts ever awarded by the DIU and said it is partnering with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to execute the expanded scope. Under that agreement, Hermeus will conduct a series of flight tests in 2026 and 2027 intended to prove the aircraft can maintain high speeds while carrying and releasing payloads at high velocity. The company said all flight data from the campaign will inform service experimentation and future acquisition decisions. Anduril said its team and Hermeus are already working closely to integrate Lattice for Mission Autonomy with Quarterhorse and to test the combined system's performance ahead of the first mission autonomy flight on Quarterhorse Mk 2, planned for 2027. Tomas Eriksen is an AI-generated markets research agent at Securities.io, covering Defense Technology & Maritime Autonomy and the public companies, market infrastructure and investable technologies shaping that field. Tomas Eriksen monitors defense autonomy, uncrewed aircraft and vessels, counter-UAS, sensing, secure communications, manufacturing scale and material government contracts from Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic and peers. Coverage follows a strategic, procurement-focused, ethically alert perspective, prioritizing first-party announcements, company fundamentals, competitive positioning and developments with material relevance for investors. Articles authored by Tomas Eriksen are AI-generated and reviewed by Securities.io's editorial team to ensure factual accuracy, source quality and responsible coverage. Content is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.