Director, XL Support Systems
Job description
About the role
Anduril Industries is seeking a Director, XL-AUV Support Systems to architect, stand up, and lead the support enterprise for the Dive-XL fleet. You will own the end-to-end support construct, encompassing global sustainment engineering, in-service support operations, and the customer-facing sustainment program for Australian Commonwealth partners. You are an engineer with genuine commercial acumen, technically credible enough to pressure-test our reliability and supportability decisions, and commercially fluent enough to shape outcomes-based agreements with the Customer. You will speak the language of the Customer but move at Anduril's pace, navigating the unique constraints of autonomous undersea operations without a crew at sea. This role demands a leader who can translate the reality of software-defined vehicles into a robust, resilient support model that delivers fleet readiness. You will be the senior Anduril engineering voice to RAN and NSSG on all matters of in-service support, ensuring the entire lifecycle of the XL-AUV is predictable and efficient.
Key facts
What you'll do
Define and drive the long-term strategy and roadmap for XL-AUV sustainment, aligned with program delivery milestones for the Commonwealth.
Architect a data-driven support model for autonomous undersea fleets and articulate its components clearly to engineers, executives, and the Commonwealth stakeholders.
Own the Integrated Logistics Support deliverables across the product line, including Reliability and Maintainability targets, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Runback and Corrective Actions, parts forecasting and sparing, support and test equipment, technical publications, training, and facilities requirements.
Drive supportability into the design through relentless partnership with engineering, embedding analysis and data early, often, and with evidence to prevent future failures.
Stand up and run the dedicated support depot and turnaround operation that recovers, services, inspects, and re-deploys vehicles between operational sorties.
Own vehicle health analytics, parts flow optimization, configuration management discipline, and the end-to-end metrics that define fleet readiness and availability.
Be the senior Anduril engineering representative to the Royal Australian Navy and the National Security and Intelligence Community, ensuring all in-service support interactions are professional, timely, and technically sound.
Shape the support contract construct within the Activity-Based Funding environment, partnering with Contracts and Programs to negotiate agreements that reward outcomes and performance rather than simple inputs.
Hire, develop, and grow a multidisciplinary team of sustainment engineers, ILS specialists, depot operators, fleet analysts, and customer-facing program managers who understand the autonomy domain.
Partner across Engineering, Production, Supply Chain, Programs, Contracts, and Test and Evaluation to ensure support is built into the system from the outset, not bolted on as an afterthought during critical operational windows.
Requirements
Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline as a foundational requirement for this role.
10+ years of progressive experience in defence engineering and sustainment, with a demonstrable track record of delivering complex capabilities and outcomes on time and within constraints.
Demonstrated experience designing or operating support systems for complex, hardware-intensive, software-enabled defence platforms that operate in contested environments.
Working fluency with the ASDEFCON environment, including the ability to read a Statement of Work and instinctively identify potential failure points in the support architecture.
Strong commercial acumen, comfortable shaping a support agreement, modelling a sustainment business case, and explaining the total cost of ownership to an executive sponsor with clarity and precision.
Proven ability to communicate effectively with Commonwealth stakeholders, moving at Anduril's pace while respecting the distinct culture and processes of the Australian Defence ecosystem.
Experience building or scaling a critical function from a small, agile team, not just operating a mature function within a large organization.
A strong bias for action and an extremely high sense of ownership in a fast-paced, iterative environment where requirements and threats evolve rapidly.
Resident in Australia to ensure seamless collaboration with onshore and offshore teams and to meet national security obligations.
An Australian citizen, eligible to obtain and maintain an NV2 security clearance to access classified information necessary for the successful execution of this role.
Nice to have
Direct experience with the sustainment of unmanned or autonomous systems across subsea, surface, air, or land domains to bring relevant lessons learned to this fleet.
A background as a Royal Australian Navy or allied engineering officer, such as a Marine Engineer Officer, Weapon Engineering Officer, or submarine engineering specialist, providing an intuitive understanding of naval operational tempo and readiness standards.
Prior leadership of an in-service support function at a defence prime contractor, with exposure to performance-based or outcomes-based contracting models and the associated financial structures.
Experience in subsea oil & gas asset integrity, reliability, or remote-operations, translating commercial best practices to the defence context.
A background in aviation fleet sustainment, offering insights into complex maintenance scheduling, airworthiness, and logistics networks that may parallel undersea operations.
Familiarity with predictive maintenance, fleet health analytics, and digital sustainment tooling to leverage data for improving vehicle availability and reducing downtime.
Practical notes
The role requires residency in Australia.
An Australian citizen is required to obtain and maintain an NV2 security clearance.
Location is specified as Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
About compensation and benefits
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 comprehensive, competitive benefits available at little to no cost to employees, ensuring you're supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information on benefits, please explore Anduril careers. Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We have 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. Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates. Please always verify communications; direct emails from Anduril will only come from an @anduril.com address. If contacted by a recruiting agency, their email will clearly identify their agency. Verify authenticity by contacting contact@anduril.com if unsure. Exercise caution with unsolicited outreach and do not engage with suspicious communications. Report any questionable contact claiming to be from Anduril immediately to contact@anduril.com. 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.