Production Program Manager, Space
Anduril Industries is hiring a Production Program Manager, Space. It pays $146k-$194k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Anduril Industries.
Level's read on this job
- Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this role: aI is not part of the work.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include computer vision, program management and manufacturing engineering.
- Level classifies it as a mid-level role.
- Level lists 2,500+ other open roles at Anduril Industries.
AI in this role
Lead production programs, schedule execution, and integration for space manufacturing initiatives at a defense technology company.
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.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Anduril’s Space Manufacturing team is seeking a Production Program Manager to join our team. The Space Manufacturing team is responsible for the assembly, integration and test of complete space vehicles across multiple concurrent product lines, and for the manufacturing engineering, test operations and tooling that make those builds repeatable at rate. Your expertise will help ensure that our products meet the highest standards of quality and reliability at Anduril.
As a Production Program Manager, you will be a program leader responsible for planning, directing, and measuring the seamless execution and integration of the production work stream across multiple functions, including manufacturing engineering, supply chain, Quality, test, and design engineering. You will lead initiatives in collaboration with Business Line and Manufacturing Engineering to define, deploy, and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) across these functions during New Product Introduction, Limited Rate and Full Rate Production phases. These KPIs will span schedule, cost, risk management, product maturation, and resource utilization, in accordance with Anduril’s Manufacturing Development Process (MDP). You'll also own the manufacturing and Assembly, Integration, and Test (AIT) execution plan — schedule, risk, KPIs and gate readiness. It does not own the engineering work itself; manufacturing engineering, test operations and quality are owned by their respective leads.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Partner with planning, production, manufacturing engineering, design engineering, supply chain, quality, launch operations and business line leadership on strategic priorities and delivery commitments.
- Own the integrated manufacturing and AIT schedule across multiple product lines: build it, maintain it as the schedule of record, and run the critical path and execution-risk analysis leadership decides from.
- Drive execution against that schedule week to week: convene the cross-functional cadence, hold owners to dates, surface slips early with quantified impact, and drive recovery plans rather than reporting variance after the fact.
- Define, deploy and monitor manufacturing KPIs from New Product Introduction through full rate production per Anduril's Manufacturing Development Process, and build the gate-readiness and critical-path reporting leadership acts on.
- Build and maintain the production cost model with Sourcing, Manufacturing Engineering and Finance. This model is the principal basis for strategic decisions on production design, operations and resource allocation.
- Serve as the manufacturing and AIT counterpart to the program managers and chief engineers, carrying delegated authority from the Director of Manufacturing to conduct manufacturing and AIT gates.
- Own manufacturing and AIT risk: maintain the risk register, quantify schedule and cost exposure, drive mitigation to closure, and make the trade between accepting risk and holding a gate explicit rather than implicit.
- Integrate the manufacturing engineering, test operations and MEP process steps into the program plan and capture that scope correctly within NRE so the work is funded rather than absorbed.
- Represent production up and out: contribute proposal and Basis of Estimate content for manufacturing and AIT scope, present at milestone reviews, and brief customers and business line leadership on execution status, gate readiness and risk.
- Engage principal vendors and partners alongside Sourcing to hold delivery commitments and contract compliance and integrate their milestones into the schedule as dependencies with real dates.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering or a related technical discipline.
- 8+ years in program, project or production management in aerospace, space, defense or another complex hardware industry.
- 3+ years owning schedule and execution for a hardware program.
- Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance.
- Has personally owned an integrated master schedule as the schedule of record — built the network, maintained it, ran critical path — with network-level fluency in Microsoft Project, Primavera P6 or Smartsheet: logic, float, resource loading and baselines.
- Experience managing a program through a New Product Introduction transition into rate production, with the readiness gates and reviews that go with it (PDR, CDR, MRR, TRR, PRR or equivalents).
- Has held a date or a gate against pressure from a peer organization and can describe how it was resolved. This role fails without it.
- Demonstrated risk and performance management on a hardware program: a maintained risk register with quantified exposure and mitigations driven to closure, plus KPIs that changed a decision where you can explain the mechanism.
- Has represented a production or program organization up and out: contributed proposal and Basis of Estimate content, and briefed customers or executive leadership on status, readiness and risk. Both the written and the in-person sides matter here.
- Has built or owned a production cost model — unit cost, labor content, material cost, NRE versus recurring — and used it to drive a decision on capacity, make/buy or resource allocation.
- Spacecraft or satellite program experience, including integration and test campaign scheduling and environmental test sequencing.
- Took a hardware program from single-digit annual builds into rate production of 100+ units per year.
- Earned value management or control account ownership, and experience capturing manufacturing scope correctly within NRE.
- Managed supplier and partner delivery commitments alongside Sourcing, including contract compliance and recovery on a late supplier.
- PMP, Agile, Lean or Six Sigma credentials, and working fluency in Jira, Confluence and Smartsheet.
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.
Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams
Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've 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.
To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:
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No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.
- Please always verify communications:
- Direct from Anduril: If you receive an email from one of our recruiters, it will only come from an @anduril.com address.
- Via Agency Partner: If contacted by a recruiting agency for an Anduril role, their email will clearly identify their agency. If you suspect any suspicious activity, please verify the agency's authenticity by reaching out to contact@anduril.com.
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Exercise Caution with Unsolicited Outreach: If you receive any communication that appears suspicious, contains grammatical errors, or makes unusual requests, do not engage. Always confirm the sender's email domain is @anduril.com before providing any personal information or clicking on links.
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What to Do If You Suspect Fraud: Should you encounter any questionable or fraudulent outreach claiming to be from Anduril, please report it immediately to contact@anduril.com. Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.
Data Privacy
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.
How we rate this
Production Program Manager, Space at Anduril Industries rates 10 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
- Tell me about a project where program management was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where manufacturing engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where supply chain was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where quality assurance was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Computer vision, Program Management, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, and Quality Assurance. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
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