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Salary: USD 166,000 - 220,000 / annual
Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, is seeking an experienced Manufacturing Safety Engineering leader to build and scale manufacturing safety as an engineering discipline across the organization. Based in Costa Mesa, CA, this is a foundational leadership role supporting manufacturing operations at multiple sites including Quonset Point, RI and Atlanta, GA, with expected travel to production facilities.
You will create and lead the Manufacturing Safety Engineering team from the ground up, establishing risk-assessment frameworks, processes, and standards that keep production equipment, fixtures, test stations, and work instructions safe. This is a hands-on technical leadership position requiring deep expertise in machine safety, formal risk assessment, and the hierarchy of controls, combined with strategic organizational leadership.
Key responsibilities include:
- Building, hiring, leveling, mentoring, and managing the Manufacturing Safety Engineering team as the discipline scales
- Establishing and standardizing the manufacturing-safety framework: risk-assessment methodology, templates, risk-acceptance criteria, safety sign-off gates, and management-of-change processes
- Driving adoption of manufacturing-safety practices across production lines and sites, defining standards of record in partnership with Manufacturing, EHS, and product engineering
- Defining and communicating the discipline's vision, goals, roadmap, and operating model
- Owning manufacturing-safety metrics, KPIs, and executive-level reporting; representing the discipline to leadership and customer/defense-program stakeholders
- Managing resource allocation, capacity planning, budget, tooling, and external partnerships
- Serving as the senior technical authority and final risk-acceptance escalation point for high-consequence manufacturing hazards
- Leading formal machine and task-based risk assessments on production equipment, fixtures, tooling, and processes
- Reviewing manufacturing work instructions and training materials; authoring Job Hazard Analyses (JHA) and embedding required controls, PPE, and safe-work steps
- Engineering and reviewing production equipment such as lift fixtures and material-handling aids in partnership with EHS
- Assessing and designing safety into production test equipment
- Applying the hierarchy of controls and prevention-through-design principles to eliminate or reduce hazards at the equipment and line-design stage
- Defining functional-safety requirements for safety-related control systems and verifying implementation
- Partnering with EHS to ensure engineering controls satisfy applicable OSHA 29 CFR 1910 general-industry requirements
- Supporting incident and near-miss investigations, root-cause analysis, and driving corrective engineering actions
Requirements:
- B.S. Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing, Industrial, or Safety Engineering, or equivalent technical discipline
- 10+ years of experience in manufacturing/machine safety, equipment/controls engineering, or related discipline, with at least 3 years in a leadership role
- Proven track record building, scaling, and managing technical teams and establishing engineering processes or disciplines
- Deep expertise in formal machine and task-based risk assessment and machine safeguarding, applied across equipment, fixtures, and processes
- Strong working knowledge of applicable OSHA 29 CFR 1910 general-industry requirements (machine guarding, lockout/tagout, electrical, PPE, materials handling) as engineering controls
- Experience partnering with EHS, manufacturing, and design organizations to embed safety into equipment and production processes
- Strategic thinking with the ability to balance hands-on technical authority with organizational leadership responsibilities
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence cross-functionally at all levels
- Eligibility to pursue and maintain a U.S. security clearance, as required
Preferred qualifications:
- Familiarity with machine safety standards such as ISO 12100 (risk assessment and risk reduction), ISO 13849 (safety-related parts of control systems), and ANSI B11 (machine safety and safeguarding)
- M.S. Degree in an engineering discipline
- Professional safety or machinery-safety certification (CSP, CMSE)
- 12+ years of experience with at least 5 years in a leadership role, including standing up a safety-engineering function or discipline from an early stage
- Experience managing teams and programs across multiple manufacturing sites through periods of rapid growth (2x+ expansion)
- Track record of developing talent and promoting team members into senior and leadership roles
- Experience in high-rate or rapidly scaling aerospace, defense, or automotive manufacturing
- Executive-level communications, reporting, and roadmap presentation experience
- Active U.S. security clearance
