Head of Production, Autonomous Airpower

About the Role: 

We are seeking a senior level organization leader to coordinate all of our flight operations across a wide variety of objectives and locations. The Autonomous Airpower Head of Production owns short to mid-term (1-3 years) strategic development and execution, operational direction, career pathing, and vision for the department. Top level charter will be to provide consistent, flawless execution for all product and AA programs.

What You'll Do:

• Own Autonomous Airpower office manufacturing floor, headcount, and capital expenditures forecasting related for Manufacturing.
• Own all aspects of Production, from advising engineering teams on design considerations to factory design and production execution.
• Serve as both a strategic leader and tactical do-er for Anduril’s rapidly growing Autonomous Airpower manufacturing operations. You will report directly to the VP, AD&S Production and manage the existing production leads from day one.
• Drive Production, Supply Chain, and Quality teams to build and execute upon Anduril’s 5-year strategic vision to become a next-generation aerospace and defense manufacturer, capable of flexibly producing 1000s of high-quality products per year.
• Partner with Engineering, Deployment Operations, and Program Management to execute success.
• Mature products in Costa Mesa,CA from low rate prototypes to full rate production by driving processes and systems as needed throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Establish and manage team to financial, quality, and on-time delivery KPIs to understand how our manufacturing operations are impacting our business.
• Advise on development and oversee implementation of digital technologies, from PLM and ERP to our custom MES and QMS systems, that enable our manufacturing operations to efficiently scale while meeting customer requirements.
• Be accountable to AS9100D guidelines.
• Be a partner to Anduril’s VP of Manufacturing for Manufacturing strategy.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum 10 years in a Manufacturing/Production leadership role within the hardware development industry with a track record of successfully scaling products from prototype to full rate production on the order of 1000s.
• Experience with discrete manufacturing operations in a deeply technical industry such as aerospace, consumer electronics, medical, or automotive. Process manufacturing experience also a plus.
• Relentless drive for continuous improvement and solving high impact business problems through highly leveraged process, business systems, and data.
• Strong outcome orientation with the ability to drive initiatives from inception to implementation and adoption. Willing and able to dive into tactical execution mode when needed to move the effort forward.
• Ability to work with engineering, supply chain, and quality teams on a highly technical level.
• Positive and inspirational leader with the demonstrated ability to assess, attract and retain high-quality talent and build high-performing teams.
• Strong ability to work cross-functionally in an unstructured, ambiguous environment. Startup experience preferred.
• Sophisticated interpersonal ability to earn credibility, influence others, change minds, and advise across diverse environments and personalities.
• Demonstrated strategic thinking abilities and the ability to see around corners.
• Strong problem solving and analytic skills with the ability to understand how problems and their solutions fit with the wider organization and its operations.
• Bachelor of Science or higher degree in a technical discipline preferred, not required.
• Must be eligible to obtain a US Security Clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ownership and successful execution of NPI for multiple complex hardware products.
• Strong leadership of (directly or indirectly) large (100+ person) teams.
• Proven ability to direct and lead cross-departmental teams in a matrix environment.
• Successful examples of scaling of production operations by at least 5x.
• Mastery of production fundamentals across production disciplines.
• Strong track record of independent execution of executive-level production goals.
• Involvement with building complex supply chains in automotive, aviation, space, or similar industries.
• Past success operating in low TRL/MRL and low volume, high product mix environments.

Per Anduril's expansion plans, we anticipate this job will be based out of Long Beach, CA beginning late 2027.