Senior Software Engineer, Mission Perception, Planning, and Operations
Anduril Industries· Defense· Oct 20, 2026 · 8d ago
Costa Mesa, California, United States
In office
Full-time
Senior
$137K–$195K est.
7+ years exp
Job description
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. ABOUT THE TEAM
Anduril's Maritime Division is transforming American sea power to meet the defining national security challenges of our era and secure our future of maritime dominance. We are scaling at an historic pace, anchored by Arsenal-2, our new software-defined shipyard being built in Baltimore County, Maryland. It's part of a new $6.6 billion investment in America's submarine industrial base. Arsenal-2 is purpose-built to break long-standing industrial bottlenecks and scale production of critical components for the Navy's Virginia-class attack submarines to support fleet requirements. At the same time, it will build the industrial muscle to field our next-generation AUVs at scale. We aren't waiting for the new shipyard to be completed. The work on this transformation starts right now, with development inside our new 160,000 square foot Proto-Factory in Orange County, California, where the team is already laying the foundation. As the prototyping hub for Arsenal-2, this facility gives us a multi-year head start, proving out the advanced manufacturing methods, digital workflows, and quality systems that will scale across our broader shipyard network. In Anduril's Maritime Division, we are actively building America's next decisive advantage at sea—and this is the moment to join us.
ABOUT THE JOB
You will own the software that lets a maritime autonomous vehicle understand its environment, decide what to do, and carry it out. Reporting to the Mission Systems Lead, you will work across all three: perception pipelines that turn sonar, radar, and EO/IR into situational awareness; planning algorithms that decompose mission objectives into executable plans; and the runtime execution software that manages mission state and handles contingencies when no operator is reachable. Your spectrum of support will be diverse in nature and require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build cross-functional teams, and rapidly drive to completion. The ability to leverage your intuition and prior experience will be key in making sure the right design, analysis, and test steps are completed to ensure success. The ideal candidate will leverage their experience executing and successfully completing prior highly optimized multi-disciplinary projects.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Design and implement sensor processing pipelines for sonar, radar, and EO/IR.
Build object detection and classification algorithms for maritime environments.
Develop multi-target tracking systems for real-time situational awareness.
Integrate platform position and attitude into the context of mission requirements.
Design and implement mission objective decomposition algorithms.
Build resource allocation and constraint satisfaction systems for mission planning.
Develop operator-facing planning interfaces for autonomous maritime missions.
Design and implement behavior execution software for autonomous maritime missions.
Build real-time decision-making systems for mission execution.
Develop contingency handling and failure response logic.
Manage mission state across complex, multi-phase autonomous operations.
Integrate mission systems with platform control, perception, and vehicle systems.
Characterize and improve performance across perception, planning, and execution against operational requirements.
Support testing and field deployment of mission capabilities.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
7+ years in autonomous systems software, robotics, perception, or real-time systems.
Experience building software for field-deployed autonomous systems.
Depth in at least one of perception, mission planning, or runtime mission execution, with working knowledge of the others.
Proficiency in real-time software development with stringent timing requirements.
Demonstrated ability to handle complex state management in production systems.
Ability to translate operational mission requirements into software requirements.
Ability to characterize system performance and drive measurable improvements.
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.
Ability to receive, process, and disposition encrypted data
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Maritime or underwater autonomy experience.
Sonar or radar signal processing background.
Experience with behavior frameworks for autonomous systems.
ROS or equivalent robotics middleware background.
Experience in planning or scheduling algorithm development for autonomous systems.
Military C2 software background.
Defense applications background.
US Salary Range $220,000 — $292,000 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:
Benefits
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 .
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