Head of Mission Operations, Intelligence Systems
Anduril Industries · Reston, VA
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Production
- Travel
- 30%
- Degree
- Required
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- Today
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level production role at Anduril Industries (aerospace & defense) in Reston, VA.
- They ask for
- degree required
- Day to day
- about 30% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 26, 2026
Production Engineer roles in Virginia: typical posted base $87k–$125k.
Median of the low and high ends of 5 live postings that list pay, out of 19 production engineer openings in Virginia, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Virginia plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 18 other live production postings in Virginia.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Not stated
Typical $87k–$125k, from 5 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 8+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Team leadership 47%
- New product launch 37%
- Lean 26%
- Root cause 21%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention 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 Production team at Anduril Industries
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- 2
Send a short, curious note
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Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- The posting says about 30% travel. Between which sites?
- 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 Reston
4 other open roles at this site · 1 person we found in production roles at Anduril Industries.
- Senior Reliability Engineer, Intelligence Systems · Reliability · Senior
- Senior Design Validation Engineer, Intelligence Systems · Quality · Senior
- Senior Supplier Quality Engineer, Intelligence Systems · Quality · Senior
- Technical Operations Engineer, Intelligence Systems · Production
Full description from Anduril IndustriesAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
requirements
to influence product roadmap priorities and engineering investments.
- ✓Build Strategic Customer Relationships: Develop and maintain trusted relationships with senior military officers, IC stakeholders, and program leadership to drive adoption, uncover future mission needs, and shape account strategy.
- ✓Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner closely with Program Management, Engineering, Legal, and Business Development to ensure seamless delivery and alignment across the organization.
- ✓Establish Metrics & Reporting: Define and track KPIs for deployment success, operator readiness, system uptime, and customer satisfaction to drive continuous improvement across the function.
Required qualifications
- ✓Proven Leadership: Demonstrated experience building, scaling, and managing technical operations or field engineering teams in a defense, intelligence, or national security environment.
- ✓Mission-First Mindset: You put the needs of the customer and the mission first. You are motivated by the opportunity to radically evolve national and allied defense capabilities.
- ✓Operational & Technical Depth: Strong technical aptitude with hands-on experience in system deployments, software configuration, troubleshooting, IP networking, APIs, and data integration — credible enough to lead a team of engineers and earn the trust of customers.
- ✓Strategic Thinking: Ability to translate organizational goals and customer needs into a clear operational strategy, then execute against it with discipline.
- ✓Adaptability: You thrive in unstructured, fast-moving environments. You can context-switch between strategic planning and tactical problem-solving without missing a beat.
- ✓Stellar Communication: Outstanding interpersonal skills with the ability to influence across all levels — from tactical operators to senior military leadership and internal executives.
- ✓Collaboration & Low-Ego: You lead by example in a flat, fast-moving organization that values teamwork, action, and execution over hierarchy.
- ✓Must be willing to travel up to 30%.
- ✓Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.
Preferred qualifications
- ✓Prior military service (tactical ops, signals, intelligence, or C2) with leadership experience.
- ✓Track record of standing up or significantly scaling a field operations, mission support, or deployment function from early stage to mature operation.
- ✓Experience designing and institutionalizing operator training programs at scale.
- ✓Degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline.
$183,000 — $243,000 USD
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
Anduril Intelligence Systems (AIS) is focused on positioning Anduril as a lead provider of specialized engineering and products for Intelligence Community (IC) customers. We work within the IC to understand their requirements, shape their concepts of operation, and deliver exquisite capability across their problem set. We aim to develop and deploy critically needed capabilities that address our customers' most pressing national security requirements.
About the job
We are seeking a strategic, hands-on leader to stand up and scale our Mission Operations function within AIS. As Head of Mission Operations, you will own the end-to-end operational success of our deployments — building and leading a team of Mission Operations Engineers while establishing the processes, standards, and playbooks that enable repeatable, high-quality delivery across a rapidly growing portfolio of IC programs. This role requires someone who can operate at both the strategic and tactical level: setting the vision for how we deploy, integrate, train, and support our products in the field while remaining close enough to the work to unblock problems in real time.
What you’ll do
- •Build & Lead the Team: Recruit, develop, and manage a team of Mission Operations Engineers. Set clear expectations, drive accountability, and foster a high-performance culture rooted in mission focus and operational excellence.
- •Define the Mission Ops Playbook: Establish scalable frameworks for system deployment, integration, operator training, and ongoing field support — turning what has been ad hoc execution into a repeatable, measurable discipline.
- •Own Deployment & Operational Readiness: Oversee the technical configuration, deployment, and integration of systems across multiple programs, ensuring every site reaches full operational capability on time and to standard.
- •Drive Operator Adoption & Training Strategy: Design and standardize training curricula for military, security, and tactical operators — ensuring consistency and quality as the team and customer base scale.
- •Serve as the Voice of the Field: Aggregate operational feedback, deployment lessons learned, and real-world user