Lead Scientist - Strategic Defense

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Strategic Defense team develops and fields software-defined command-and-control capabilities for the most demanding Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) missions. The team connects distributed sensors, battle-management functions, fire-control systems, and effectors to create resilient, interoperable kill chains against complex air and missile threats.

Working across software, systems, autonomy, modeling and simulation, integration, test, and mission operations, the team delivers capabilities that help U.S. and allied forces sense, understand, decide, and act at machine speed. Our systems must operate across services and domains, integrate with existing and emerging architectures, and remain effective in contested and degraded environments.

ABOUT THE JOB

Anduril is seeking a Lead Scientist / Engineer to lead the technical definition, architecture, integration, and validation of Integrated Air and Missile Defense capabilities within the Strategic Defense business line.

This is a hands-on engineering role for a senior technical contributor. The successful candidate will have spent a substantial portion of their career personally developing, integrating, testing, or analyzing complex defense systems. We are not seeking a candidate whose experience is primarily program management, capture, business development, acquisition management, or administrative oversight.

The engineer will own critical elements of the end-to-end engagement chain, with particular emphasis on fire control and dynamic sensor tasking. They will translate operational mission needs into system behavior, develop architectures and interfaces, conduct engineering trades, support implementation, and prove performance through modeling, simulation, hardware/software integration, and test.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead system and mission architecture for end-to-end IAMD kill chains spanning sensing, track formation, identification, threat evaluation, weapon assignment, engagement planning, fire-control execution, and kill assessment.
• Define and mature fire-control functionality, including engagement-quality track requirements, sensor-to-shooter interfaces, weapon-control integration, timing and latency budgets, safety constraints, and engagement-sequence logic.
• Develop dynamic sensor-tasking approaches that allocate and coordinate distributed sensors based on threat priority, track quality, geometry, resource availability, defended-asset priorities, and anticipated engagement needs.
• Translate operational concepts, threat scenarios, and customer needs into testable system requirements, behaviors, interfaces, and performance measures.
• Decompose mission objectives into subsystem requirements and maintain traceability from operational need through architecture, implementation, verification, and validation.
• Perform and review technical analyses involving detection and tracking performance, sensor coverage, track quality, discrimination, system latency, raid handling, resource allocation, engagement timelines, and probability of mission success.
• Build and use modeling and simulation environments to evaluate architectures, algorithms, sensor and effector pairings, system-of-systems behavior, and mission performance against representative threat sets.
• Work directly with software engineers to implement battle-management, fire-control, sensor-management, track-management, and decision-support capabilities.
• Integrate government-furnished, commercial, allied, and Anduril sensors and effectors through well-defined interfaces and open-system architectures.
• Plan and execute software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, laboratory, range, flight, and live-fire integration and test activities.
• Diagnose system behavior using logs, telemetry, test data, and quantitative analysis; identify root causes and drive technical issues to closure.
• Develop engineering artifacts such as system architectures, interface definitions, requirements, sequence diagrams, state machines, trade studies, test plans, safety analyses, and verification evidence.
• Engage directly with operational users, government technical organizations, program offices, laboratories, and industry partners to resolve technical issues and shape deployable solutions.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship while remaining personally involved in engineering analysis, design reviews, integration, and test.
• Support field demonstrations, exercises, and deployments, including travel to customer and test locations as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 10–15 years of relevant engineering experience developing, integrating, testing, or fielding complex defense, aerospace, radar, missile, weapon, battle-management, or command-and-control systems.
• A sustained record of hands-on technical work in systems engineering, software engineering, controls, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, radar engineering, modeling and simulation, integration and test, or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated engineering experience with fire-control systems or engagement chains, including several of the following: engagement-quality tracks, weapon assignment, engagement planning, sensor-to-shooter integration, fire-control interfaces, timing and latency, weapon-control functions, safety interlocks, or engagement testing.
• Demonstrated experience with sensor tasking or sensor resource management, including task planning, revisit scheduling, search and track allocation, track-quality management, multi-sensor coordination, or closed-loop tasking based on mission objectives.
• Working knowledge of IAMD missions and threats, including a meaningful subset of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic threats, fixed-wing aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft, and other airborne threats.
• Experience developing and analyzing end-to-end system architectures that integrate multiple sensors, command-and-control nodes, fire-control elements, communications networks, and effectors.
• Experience translating operational needs and concepts of operation into technical requirements, architectures, interface definitions, and verification plans.
• Experience with sensor fusion, tracking, battle management, mission planning, resource allocation, or real-time decision systems.
• Experience conducting quantitative engineering trades and performance analysis using Python, MATLAB/Simulink, C++, or equivalent analytical environments.
• Experience integrating and testing complex hardware/software systems in laboratory, field, range, or operational environments.
• Strong understanding of systems-engineering practices across the development lifecycle, including requirements management, interface control, architecture, integration, verification, validation, and technical risk management.
• Ability to communicate clearly with software, hardware, test, operations, and customer teams and work effectively from detailed technical discussions through senior design reviews.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, or another relevant technical field.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Direct experience with one or more operational air or missile defense ecosystems, such as IBCS, AEGIS, C2BMC, THAAD, Patriot, LTAMDS, Sentinel, G/ATOR, NASAMS, or comparable U.S. or allied systems.
• Experience developing or integrating battle-management and command-and-control software for layered air and missile defense.
• Deep knowledge of radar search, detection, track formation, discrimination, track correlation, measurement scheduling, or sensor resource management.
• Experience with integrated fire-control networks, cooperative engagement, composite tracking, or remote sensor-to-shooter engagements.
• Knowledge of interceptor and weapon-system behavior, including launch envelopes, guidance concepts, in-flight target updates, defended-asset planning, and engagement sequencing.
• Experience designing for contested communications, intermittent connectivity, distributed operations, electronic attack, cyber constraints, or degraded sensor environments.
• Experience with tactical data links, military messaging, government reference architectures, and defense interface standards.
• Experience with model-based systems engineering and tools such as Cameo/MagicDraw, SysML, UAF, or DoDAF.
• Experience supporting flight tests, range tests, live-fire tests, operational demonstrations, or fielded mission systems.
• Master’s degree or doctorate in a relevant technical field.
• Active U.S. Secret or Top Secret clearance.

Candidates whose backgrounds are primarily program management, business development, capture, acquisition management, or staff oversight—and who cannot demonstrate substantial recent engineering ownership—will not meet the requirements of this role.

US Salary Range 253000 - 336000 USD