About this opportunity
Anduril lists this Senior Software Engineer, Simulation Platform opportunity in costa mesa, California. Review the employer’s description below for duties, qualifications and application requirements.
Job description
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 Simulation Platform team owns the core architecture and infrastructure of Anduril's high-fidelity, multi-domain military mission simulator. It models hundreds of entities--aircraft, ships, submarines, satellites, ground vehicles--moving, sensing, communicating, and engaging across realistic physical environments. The simulator powers training, mission planning, autonomy development, and hardware-in-the-loop testing across Anduril's product portfolio. It connects to live systems, integrates with Anduril's Lattice platform, and runs inside a GUI for interactive scenario authoring. Mission Sim is a large, mature C++20 codebase with an Entity-Component-System architecture, a stable C ABI plugin system, embedded scripting, and a variety of physics-based models. Keeping this system fast, correct, extensible, and pleasant to develop against at scale, with a growing team of model developers is our job.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Platform work is leverage. Every API you design, every millisecond you shave off the frame loop, every rough edge you smooth in the developer experience — it multiplies across every model, every scenario, and every engineer which builds atop Anduril’s mission simulator.
This role is open to senior engineers and strong mid-career engineers who are ready to own significant pieces of a complex system. If you've spent your career building applications and want to shift toward framework and infrastructure work, this role is for you!
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Performance and scale — keep the simulation loop fast enough for real-time and faster-than-real-time execution with hundreds of concurrent entities; reasoning about memory layout, cache behavior, and contention as entity counts grow
Custom Entity‑Component‑System architecture that underpins the entire simulator: entity lifecycle, component storage, system registration, and the update loop
Plugin and SDK development: maintain a versioned C ABI, enabling external teams to extend the simulator
Integration architecture: gRPC services, DIS protocol interoperability, networking messaging, and file recording for playback
Support domain experts in integrating new and enhancing existing capability models
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
3 years of professional experience with C++20 and strong C++ skills; you should be comfortable with templates, move semantics, smart pointers, and the kinds of design decisions that show up in framework code
Experience designing internal APIs and frameworks that other engineers build on — you care about backwards-compatibility, ergonomics, not just correctness
Solid understanding of systems programming fundamentals: memory management, shared libraries, ABI stability, linking, and platform-level concerns
Comfort with linear algebra and applied math
Familiarity with Linux based C++ development toolchains
Ability to reason about performance-sensitive code—cache behavior, memory layout, algorithmic complexity
Clear technical communication and ability to work in a large, shared codebase with architectural decision making that impacts a growing team
Eligibility to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Government Secret security clearance
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
5+ years of professional experience with C++20
Experience with military simulation, defense modeling & simulation (M&S), or related domains
Experience with Entity-Component-System architectures or game engine design patterns
Familiarity with gRPC, DIS (IEEE 1278.1) distributed simulation standard
Experience with Python/C++ interop (pybind11, embedded interpreters)
Familiarity with behavior trees or autonomous agent architectures
Exposure to Nix for reproducible builds
Experience with numerical simulation, physics modeling, or scientific computing
US Salary Range
$191,000 — $253,000 USD
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:
Healthcare Benefits
US Roles: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans at little to no cost to you.
UK & AUS Roles: We cover full cost of medical insurance premiums for you and your dependents.
IE Roles: We offer an annual contribution toward your private health insurance for you and your dependents.
Additional Benefits
Income Protection: Anduril covers life and disability insurance for all employees.
Generous time off: Highly competitive PTO plans with a holiday hiatus in December. Caregiver & Wellness Leave is available to care for family members, bond with a new baby, or address your own medical needs.
Family Planning & Parenting Support: Coverage for fertility treatments (e.g., IVF, preservation), adoption, and gestational carriers, along with resources to support you and your partner from planning to parenting.
Mental Health Resources: Access free mental health resources 24/7, including therapy and life coaching. Additional work-life services, such as legal and financial support, are also available.
Professional Development: Annual reimbursement for professional development
Commuter Benefits: Company-funded commuter benefits based on your region.
Relocation Assistance: Available depending on role eligibility.
Retirement Savings Plan
US Roles: Traditional 401(k), Roth, and after-tax (mega backdoor Roth) options.
UK & IE Roles: Pension plan with employer match.
AUS Roles: Superannuation plan.
The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process.
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:
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
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.
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 Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.
Data Privacy
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Worksite address
costa mesa, CA, 92626, US
Who can apply
Review the original listing for work authorization, qualifications and employer requirements.