Reliability Engineer
Anduril Industries · Costa Mesa, CA
- Level
- Engineer
- Team
- Reliability
- Degree
- Required (or equivalent experience)
- Experience asked
- 5+ years
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
An engineer-level reliability role at Anduril Industries (aerospace & defense) in Costa Mesa, CA. Also partner with manufacturing, quality, test operations, and field service teams to transition these products from engineering prototypes to production-ready systems.
- They ask for
- 5+ years · degree required (or equivalent experience)
- Tools it names
- Root cause, FMEA, CAPA, Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ), Tooling
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Reliability Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $115k–$165k.
Median of the low and high ends of 61 live postings that list pay, out of 130 reliability engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 129 other live reliability postings in California.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Typical (5+ years)
Typical $115k–$165k, from 61 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 71%
- ✓ FMEA 43%
- New product launch 42%
- Automation 32%
- ✓ Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 28%
- SPC 20%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for CAPA, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Reliability team at Anduril Industries
We found 3 people at this company and state: 1 in this kind of role, 2 leaders. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Andre → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
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If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa
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Full description from Anduril IndustriesAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
What you'll do
- ◆Support and review system block diagrams, interface control documents, and schematics for compliance, redundancy, and accuracy against
requirements
and concept of operations.
- ✓Lead Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) efforts, collaborating with cross-functional engineering teams to implement design improvements.
- ✓Perform predictive reliability analysis to calculate probability of loss of control, loss of asset, and MTTF/MTBF utilizing Anduril requirements, specifications, and relevant industry standards (i.e. MIL-HDBK-217Plus).
- ✓Develop and execute comprehensive Qualification and Validation Test plans (including environmental, life/limit, and accelerated testing) to ensure appropriate
requirements
coverage and de-risking for production readiness; partner with Test Engineering to fixture and instrument test campaigns.
- ✓Work with Quality and Manufacturing Engineering to develop, refine, and validate assembly, integration, and testing processes (including inspection/acceptance test gates) to optimize build reliability and reduce time-to-deploy.
- ✓Develop Maintainability prediction models using MIL-HDBK-472, and support the development of Preventative Maintenance & Sparing plans.
- ✓Perform Weibull analysis utilizing data from qualification campaigns, production testing, and fielded assets to predict failures and identify trends.
- ✓Lead failure investigations on anomalies originating from design validation, production testing, and field returns; drive root cause analysis and corrective/preventative actions (CAPA) to closure.
- ✓Support Development Milestone Reviews through the identification of appropriate entry and exit criteria, guiding the transition of designs from engineering development to high-rate production.
- ✓Develop and implement standardized reliability processes, tools, and infrastructure to streamline and accelerate our design, manufacturing, and deployment operations.
Required qualifications
- ✓Minimum of 5 years experience as a Reliability Engineer, Design/Development Engineer, or Test Engineer
- ✓B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or equivalent technical discipline
- ✓Experience with safety-critical hardware & software systems in the defense or aerospace industry
- ✓Experience or familiarity with MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-217, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-516C, and MIL-STD-1629
- ✓Experience setting up a Reliability Engineering framework for a product or program, including support of production testing, field testing, data acquisition, and data analysis
- ✓Expertise in reliability analysis techniques, including FMEA/FMECA, predictive modeling, Weibull analysis, and Fault Tree Analysis
- ✓Experience with generating qualification testing
requirements
and executing tests to proactively characterize product behavior and performance
- ✓Failure investigation/analysis experi
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
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
The Reliability Engineering team partners across Anduril's engineering, manufacturing, and operations organizations to ensure our autonomous systems survive real-world conditions and deliver consistent performance for our customers. Our mandate spans the complete product lifecycle - from early concept design through production scale-up and fielded operations. We use data, statistical methods, and engineering analysis to forecast how our systems will perform over time and influence design decisions, including part selection, redundancy strategies, and maintenance approaches. We establish tailored reliability frameworks by program and partner with Quality to drive design robustness, failure prevention, and rapid response to issues in the field.
About the job
Anduril's Reliability & System Safety Engineering organization is hiring Reliability Engineers across our product portfolio. Domains may include Air Dominance & Strike, Counter-UAS, Maritime, Ground Systems, Space, and Mission Autonomy. These are highly collaborative, hands-on roles spanning the entire product lifecycle - from early concept trade studies and detailed design through manufacturing scale-up, production, and sustained field performance. You'll be the reliability champion throughout the design and development process, working closely with mechanical, electrical, and software engineering teams to ensure designs are robust. You'll also partner with manufacturing, quality, test operations, and field service teams to transition these products from engineering prototypes to production-ready systems. Your scope will span performing predictive reliability analysis and FMEAs, developing and executing qualification and production test plans, leading root-cause failure investigations from both the factory floor and the field, and closing the loop to drive continuous design and process improvements. We are looking for candidates who bring deep technical knowledge of hardware reliability and failure mechanisms, practical experience in both design and production environments, and the ability to drive cross-functional alignment without direct authority. These roles demand independent, data-driven engineers who can build reliability infrastructure from the ground up and take ownership of product performance from concept to deployment.
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