Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Barracuda

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 SITE Anduril, a leader in autonomous systems and weapons manufacturing, is building Arsenal-1, its first hyper-scale manufacturing facility, just south of Columbus, Ohio in Pickaway County. Arsenal-1 is redefining the scale and speed at which autonomous systems and weapons can be produced for the United States and its allies and partners. This is a monumental and essential step toward rebuilding America's defense industrial base, strengthening America's warfighting capabilities, and enhancing deterrence amid rising international threats. ABOUT THE PRODUCT The future of defense is being built right now, and Anduril's Barracuda product is at its leading edge. Barracuda is a family of air-breathing autonomous air vehicles (AAVs) purpose-built for hyper-scale production and mass employment. The Barracuda family consists of Barracuda-100, Barracuda-250, and Barracuda-500. Each increment offers increasing size, range, and payload capacity, but all Barracudas are compatible with a host of payloads and employment mechanisms, support a variety of different missions, and provide warfighters with an adaptable and upgradeable capability to counter evolving threats. ABOUT THE TEAM The Barracuda Launch Team (BLT) will set the standard for building the future at Arsenal-1, our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Ashville, OH. As Barracuda transitions from low-rate initial production to high-rate manufacturing, this team will stand up and sustain the production floor operations that make that ramp possible. You will have the opportunity to train under our world-class manufacturing team at Anduril HQ in Costa Mesa, CA for up to 3 months before bringing that standard of excellence back to Ohio. ABOUT THE JOB As a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, you will play a key role in scaling Barracuda production from early builds to full-rate output at Arsenal-1. Your core responsibility is owning the manufacturing process on the floor — ensuring production quality, resolving issues in real time, and driving the continuous improvement that high-rate manufacturing demands. The role spans the full manufacturing value chain: Design for Manufacturability, tooling and fixture design, process creation and optimization, vendor collaboration, quality planning, and production documentation. ** This role requires relocation to Costa Mesa, CA for an initial training program of up to 3 months. Housing, transportation, etc. will be provided during your stay. WHAT YOU'LL DO • Execute the manufacturing of Barracuda products or sub-assemblies from prototype through full-rate production, and own the build package for your area. • Partner with design engineers early in the development process to drive DFM and producibility into the design, and help move products from design to prototype to rate. • Author and maintain the documentation required to build at scale, including MBOMs, work instructions and requirements, tooling and fixture specs, and process specifications. • Root-cause and resolve floor issues using RCCA and 5-Why methodologies, and drive process changes that improve cost, quality, and capacity. • Support capacity and rate planning with manufacturing planning teams and internal customers to meet production demand and ramp targets. • Operate with incomplete or still-evolving design inputs: ask the right questions, work from first principles, and create structure where none yet exists. • Partner with Quality, technicians, and vendors to hold quality standards and unblock production. Travel to suppliers and partner sites as needed for sourcing, issue resolution, and process implementation. • Analyze production metrics for continuous improvement initiatives — cost reduction, quality improvement, and capacity increase. • Develop production and test methodologies and implement best practices to enable scaling production capabilities for larger, more complex products. • Instill a culture of innovation, teamwork, and accountability within the manufacturing engineering team on the production floor. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR • 7+ years in manufacturing of electromechanical hardware, or equivalent hands-on build experience. • Degree in an engineering or technical field preferred, or equivalent hands-on manufacturing experience. • Manufacturing engineering fundamentals: reading engineering drawings and GD&T, DFM, work instructions, and tooling and fixtures. • You have physically built hardware — machining, fabrication, soldering, assembly, etc. Personal or extracurricular projects count. • Comfort with ambiguity, high-rate production environments, and delivering in a resource-constrained setting. • A world-class quality and mission-assurance mindset, a genuine hunger to learn, and flexibility for critical pushes. • S. Citizen required. Willing to relocate to Ohio (Arsenal-1) after the Costa Mesa training period. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS • High-rate manufacturing background in aerospace, automotive/EV, industrial, or medical device. • Experience building or transforming successful production operation organizations and leading large-scale change management initiatives. • Exposure to aircraft, aerospace, and defense programs. • Harness and PCBA fabrication experience, including prior work with or setup/modification/monitoring of SMT processes. • Hands-on experience with R/C and/or autonomous flight vehicles, flight controllers, or related control systems. • Lean Six Sigma (Green Belt or higher); familiarity with J-STD-001, IPC-A-610, and IPC/WHMA-A-620. • Software scripting ability in any language. • Current active U.S. Secret security clearance. US Salary Range $126,000 — $167,000 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 . Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've 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 @anduril.com 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 agency's authenticity by reaching out to contact@anduril.com . • 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 sender's email domain is @anduril.com 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 contact@anduril.com . Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts. Data Privacy To view Anduril's candidate data privacy policy, please visit https://anduril.com/applicant-privacy-notice/ . By 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.