Senior ML Engineer, Core Development

This role is for a Machine Learning Engineer to apply physics ML to accelerate the design cycle of autonomous air vehicles. The engineer will own the surrogate modeling stack, developing and deploying models that speed up simulations like CFD and FEA. They will work with domain engineers to integrate these models into design tools and mentor others. The position is based onsite in Costa Mesa, CA.

Responsibilities

• Own the Surrogate Modeling Stack: Drive the end-to-end design, training, and deployment of production-grade surrogate models to accelerate critical simulation workflows (CFD, FEA, thermal, structural, and aeroelastic) across air vehicle design.
• Develop State-of-the-Art Architectures: Design and implement neural architectures tailored to engineering physics, developing new techniques for uncertainty quantification, active learning, and inverse problems (such as geometry and shape optimization).
• Build Robust Data & Training Infrastructure: Create the pipelines behind the training—extracting, aggregating, and sanitizing tens of thousands of high-fidelity results from solver outputs.
• Optimize & Integrate: Optimize inference for the design loop (maximizing GPU utilization, batched evaluation, and interactive-speed latency) and seamlessly integrate surrogate predictions into the tooling our domain engineers already use.
• Collaborate & Mentor: Partner with domain engineers to identify where ML delivers the highest leverage, stay current with Physics AI research, and provide technical mentorship to non ML engineers.

Requirements

• Education: BS, MS, or PhD in aerospace, thermal, mechanical, or electrical engineering, or in machine learning/AI/data science with a demonstrated engineering foundation.
• Experience: 3+ years of experience taking ML models from R&D into production using large-scale scientific or engineering datasets.
• Physics ML Expertise: Working knowledge of modern surrogate architectures (e.g. GNNs, Transolver, DoMINO & GeoTransolver) combined with hands-on experience running physical simulations (CFD, FEA, thermal, etc.) and a command of the underlying numerical methods.
• Software & Frameworks: Proficiency in Python and MATLAB; experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, and NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo (Modulus); and experience developing on Linux with GPU accelerators and distributed training.
• Data & Engineering Best Practices: Track record of building production data pipelines from heterogeneous engineering sources, utilizing uncertainty quantification, conducting statistical analysis, and building data science dashboards
• Clearance: Must be a U.S. Person eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Nice to have

• Advanced Physics ML: Graduate research focused on AI for scientific simulation, experience solving inverse problems (geometry optimization/design under uncertainty), and hands-on experience building active learning or adaptive sampling pipelines.
• Domain Expertise: Prior work in aerospace, automotive, turbomachinery, or another simulation-heavy hardware domain, with familiarity in commercial solvers, meshing tools, and CAD interoperability.
• Advanced Tooling: Working knowledge of foundational ML methods (Gaussian processes, XGBoost, Elastic Net regression & clustering) with the ability to build custom architectures, advanced skills in visualization software (Plotly, Seaborn, Matplotlib), and ML Ops orchestration experience (e.g. Docker, Weights & Biases, AWS S3, Lambda & SageMaker)

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:
• 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.