- Robot type
- Drone · Defense
- Location
- Costa MesaCaliforniaUSA
- Job type
- Hardware
- Posted
- Aug 31, 2026
- Salary
- $191,000–$253,000 a year
Full-time
Senior Discovery Engineer
Job description
Discovery is Anduril's team for the hard concepts: the ones that are not yet proven or built. We take the newest and hardest problems across space, missiles, air, sensors, autonomy, and cyber, decide what is worth building, and prove it out: we build the models, break the assumptions, run the tests, and carry what works to the point where a program can pick it up. We work with hardware and software engineering teams across the company, driving cross-functional collaboration across different business lines.
We are building an expeditionary force: a small group of engineers who want to do big, new, hard things and who move into unfamiliar territory as a matter of course.
Job responsibilities
- Own new concepts from first idea through analysis, prototype, and test, and drive them to a validated answer
- Learn new domains fast enough to do real work in them: read the references, build the model, check it against known results, then extend it
- Build or adapt the models, simulations, and test setups the question needs, using existing tools where they fit and building where they do not
- Pressure-test your own and others' work: hunt failure modes, surface hidden assumptions, and stress trade studies before decisions are locked in
- Use AI tools as a force multiplier for research, code, and analysis, and know when their output has to be checked against a reference
- Work shoulder to shoulder with Hardware, Software, GNC, and the other teams at Anduril, and translate results into decisions that change the design
- Communicate results to engineers, leadership, and customers, including strong visual presentation of complex data
Job requirements
- Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance
- Demonstrated experience working in more than one technical area
- You have done things: designed, built, tested, or fielded something real, in any field
- Proficiency in at least one physics-math scripting environment (Python with numpy/scipy, MATLAB/Simulink, Julia, or similar)
- Strong written, verbal, and visual communication
- 8+ years in a relevant science/engineering field
- Math, physics, or engineering degree, or similar
- Proficiency with AI tools (coding assistants, agents, model-driven research) in day-to-day engineering work, and judgment about when to trust their output