Program Chief Engineer

About the Role

As a Program Chief Engineer you will be responsible for defining and driving the system's 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 You'll Do

• Technical Leadership & Vision: Define and articulate the technical vision and strategic roadmap for the system, ensuring alignment with Anduril's 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

• Bachelor's, Master's, 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.