Materials Engineer, Rocket Motor Systems

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology.

Anduril's Rocket Motor Systems (RMS) team is rebuilding U.S. domestic production capacity for solid rocket propulsion. We're looking for a Materials and Process (M&P) Engineer to help connect how a motor is formulated, tested, and built to how it actually performs.

You'll work across the full stack of solid rocket motor materials: insulation, seals, propellants, motor cases, nozzles, and energetic systems.

As a Materials and Process Engineer, you'll help build the M&P infrastructure that lets the RMS team scale from prototype development to high-rate production, contributing to the material specifications, process specifications, acceptance test procedures, and design allowables that turn fast-moving development work into clear, configuration-controlled engineering documentation.

Responsibilities

• Connect polymeric material properties, characterization, and processing fundamentals to solid rocket motor design, formulation, testing, manufacturing, and performance
• Build and maintain material specifications that connect system performance requirements to formulation for polymeric materials spanning raw materials, components, and assemblies
• Develop standard testing procedures to characterize the mechanical, viscoelastic, thermal, and surface behavior of polymeric materials across solid rocket motor components and assemblies
• Create process specifications for manufacturing operations including propellant processing, ablative manufacturing, insulation/liner bonding and surface preparation, surface modification, coating application, adhesive curing, heat treatment, and final assembly
• Run materials characterization for polymeric materials including mechanical testing, thermal analysis, rheology, cure kinetics, surface energy and interfaces, and ablation performance
• Develop design allowables from characterization results per industry standards
• Partner with design and manufacturing teams to review drawings and manufacturing plans, support design reviews, and troubleshoot production issues
• Work across science, engineering, manufacturing, quality, and program teams to turn mission requirements into right-sized material and process solutions
• Contribute to cost-reduction and cycle-time improvement efforts for high-rate production and prepare technical documentation

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Materials Science, Polymer Engineering, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related field
• 2+ years of materials and process engineering experience in material testing for aerospace, propulsion, or defense applications
• Working knowledge in one or more of the following: polymer mechanics and rheology, propellant materials and processing, adhesive bonding, cure kinetics, and surface preparation
• Exposure to developing material or process specifications
• Experience with material characterization, testing, and documentation
• Strong technical writing and attention to detail
• Ability to manage multiple priorities independently in a fast-paced environment
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or Doctorate in Materials Science, Polymer Engineering, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related field
• Direct experience with materials used in solid rocket motors
• Depth or growing interest in two or more of the following: high-temperature coatings, adhesives, insulation, liners, and ablatives; polymer surface characterization and modification; interfacial mechanics, chemistry, and behavior
• Hands-on experience with polymer processing, propellant processing, composite fabrication, ablative manufacturing, or metal case production
• Experience developing design allowables per CMH-17, JANNAF, or MIL-HDBK-17 standards
• Experience with NDI methods and developing inspection procedures
• Experience characterizing polymer material interfaces across solid rocket motor systems
• Familiarity with MIL-STDs, AIAA standards, and JANNAF best practices
• Knowledge of rocket motor design, internal ballistics, and combustion environments
• Experience participating in Engineering Review Boards, Material Review Boards, and Failure Review Boards
• Experience transitioning processes from development to production in agile environments

Benefits Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including comprehensive, competitive benefits package.