Principal Test & Evaluation Engineer - Networked Battlefield Systems
Anduril · Costa Mesa, United States · 21d ago
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.
The Test & Evaluation Engineering Team at Anduril works across the entire spectrum of products and business lines, as well as all flight operations and test range management. Our team conducts full system-level development testing, new production acceptance testing, sub-component qualification testing, and much more. If it involves test, we lead the way.
Overview
Anduril is seeking a Principal Test Engineer to serve as the senior-most individual-contributor technical authority for test and evaluation across Connected Warfare's portfolio, including Eagle Eye, NGC2, Menace family of systems, and more. Where Staff and Lead Test Engineers own the test program for a specific system or campaign, this role is accountable for technical coherence across Connected Warfare's applications — supporting teams in shaping sound verification strategy, resolving the hardest cross-system integration and test problems, and raising the bar for how the division's test engineers plan, execute, and document their work.
This role sits above individual program ownership and below formal people management: you'll support Staff- and Lead-level test engineers across multiple concurrent campaigns by reviewing their test approaches and documentation for technical adequacy and coaching them through the hardest problems — not by owning or executing programs yourself. Your primary value is deep technical judgment brought to bear on other teams' work, not headcount or personal execution output. You'll be the person program leadership and engineering call when a test problem is genuinely hard, ambiguous, or spans more than one Connected Warfare system.
What you’ll do
- Serve as the senior technical authority on test strategy across most of Connected Warfare's applications, providing technical oversight and support to the teams running the division's most complex, highest-risk, or multi-system test campaigns.
- Review and help program teams strengthen verification strategies — requirements-based, scenario-based, and operationally relevant — ensuring they scale across CW's software-enabled hardware and pure-software systems and properly incorporate customer-required standards and metrics.
- Act as connective tissue across Connected Warfare's individual test programs: identify where one program's test infrastructure, tooling, instrumentation, or lessons learned should be reused elsewhere in the division, and work with program teams to drive that reuse.
- Provide technical mentorship and escalation support to Staff and Lead Test Engineers running individual program test campaigns — reviewing test plans, execution approach, and reporting across developmental test, system integration (HIL/SIL), and operational assessment events (from lab integration through field validation), unblocking hard technical problems, and raising the technical rigor of test execution across the division. Step in hands-on only on the most technically demanding events where a program team needs direct help.
- Directly support T&E Test Process execution (e.g. Test Readiness Reviews (TRRs), technical milestone reviews, and customer acceptance events), representing CW's test posture with credibility to government and program stakeholders.
- Work with teams to confirm traceability from requirements through verification and validation results across CW programs, and help define and monitor test coverage, requirements verification, and defect closure metrics at a division level, not just program level.
- Support root-cause investigation on the hardest test findings and system anomalies, partnering directly with engineering to resolve issues that cross system or program boundaries.
- Represent Connected Warfare T&E in engineering design reviews (PDR/CDR) and technical exchanges with government customers and partner organizations as needed.
- Contribute to the technical hiring and onboarding of test engineers across Connected Warfare.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline (advanced degree preferred); equivalent relevant experience considered.
- 10-14+ years of experience in system-level test and evaluation of integrated hardware/software systems, with 8+ years operating in a technical leadership or test lead capacity.
- Demonstrated technical depth across multiple Connected Warfare-relevant systems (e.g., tactical C2, sensor/mission autonomy platforms, networked datalinks) — not limited to a single program.
- Proven track record across the full test lifecycle — requirements development, HITL lab integration, developmental test, operational validation, and reporting — including experience reviewing and strengthening other teams' test approaches and documentation, not just running your own program.
- Strong experience with RF communications, tactical datalinks, and networked C2 systems in DoD operational environments.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor and technically direct other test engineers across concurrent programs without formal management authority — influencing through technical credibility.
- Deep familiarity with DoD and industry test processes, including MIL-STD test protocols and government verification practices.
- Skilled in assessing and reporting on test metrics at a program and cross-program level.
- Excellent communication and technical presentation skills, with demonstrated ability to brief senior internal leadership and government customers.
- Ability to travel periodically (up to 50%) for test execution at ranges and field sites.
- Active or immediately eligible for a U.S. Secret security clearance; eligibility for Top Secret/SCI strongly preferred.
- In this role, you will be subject to pre-employment and randomized substance screening, as required by the Company.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree in Systems Engineering or a related technical field.
- Prior experience as Test Lead across multiple DoD programs (ACAT I/II or equivalent), including cross-program or cross-system responsibility.
- Knowledge of EMI/EMC testing, environmental testing (MIL-STD-810), and power/avionics standards (MIL-STD-1275, MIL-STD-1553/1760).
- Experience helping teams build or scale test automation frameworks, data analysis tooling, or test instrumentation used across multiple programs.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, software integration, and hardware-in-the-loop test environments.
- Experience conducting test activities in remote, austere, or tactical operational settings.
- Active Top Secret/SCI clearance.
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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