Industrial Strategy Lead, Production Strategy and Operations

<div class="content-intro"><p>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.</p></div><p><strong>About Anduril Production Strategy & Operations (PS&O)<br></strong></p> <ul> <li>PS&O is the strategic operations arm of Anduril's Production organization. We exist at the intersection of corporate strategy and manufacturing execution — the team that takes senior leadership's strategic priorities and turns them into operational reality. Industrial Development is one of three PS&O pillars: <ul> <li><strong>Industrial Development:</strong> Production M&A thesis, upstream funnel management, review of vertical integration, production centric diligence</li> <li><strong>Industrial Integration:</strong> Post-acquisition production integration deployment to suppliers</li> <li><strong>Special Projects:</strong> High-priority, cross-cutting production initiatives ("up and out" strategic projects and "down and in" site deployments)</li> </ul> </li> <li>We are a small, high-leverage team building the playbook for scaling defense production. If you want to work on problems that matter — at the intersection of M&A, manufacturing, and national security — this is the team.</li> </ul> <p><strong>What You'll Do</strong></p> <ul> <li> <ul> <li>You will be the production voice in Anduril's M&A process — the person who can look at an acquisition target and articulate whether it makes Anduril's production base stronger, weaker, or redundant. This is not a traditional CorpDev role. You won't be building DCFs or negotiating purchase agreements. You'll be developing the <strong>production thesis</strong> for why Anduril should (or shouldn't) acquire a company, running the production centric diligence that CorpDev doesn't have the domain expertise to execute, and ensuring that what we buy actually integrates into how we build things.</li> <li><strong>Production M&A Thesis Development:</strong> Scan the defense industrial base and work with Division leaders to evaluate acquisition targets that fill production capability gaps — vertical integration opportunities, critical supplier consolidation, or capacity expansion. Build business cases grounded in manufacturing economics (not just revenue multiples).</li> <li><strong>Diligence Leadership:</strong> Scope and lead production-focused diligence workstreams for active deals. Assess target manufacturing capabilities, production capacity, workforce quality, equipment condition, quality systems maturity, and supply chain health. Deliver clear go/no-go recommendations to CorpDev and Production leadership.</li> <li><strong>Integration Handoff:</strong> Translate diligence findings into actionable integration plans. Coordinate with Anduril’s M&A integration team on Day 0/Day 1 activities while owning the production-specific integration risks (systems cutover, supplier transition, quality system harmonization).</li> <li><strong>CorpDev Partnership:</strong> Serve as the primary PS&O interface to CorpDev throughout the deal process. You complement their financial and legal diligence with operational and production assessment — you are the person who can tell CorpDev "yes, this factory can actually scale to 10x volume" or "no, their quality system is a $5M fix."</li> <li><strong>Team Leadership:</strong> Lead a 2-person sub-team (Analyst + Production Diligence Specialist). Set diligence priorities, review work products, and develop junior team members.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><strong>What We're Looking For</strong></p> <ul> <li> <ul> <li><strong>4–6 years</strong> of experience in corporate development, M&A, or strategic transactions — ideally at a <strong>defense prime or industrials company</strong> (L3Harris, RTX, Northrop, GD, Textron, etc.) where you've seen acquisitions from the operating company side, not just the financial side.</li> <li>Strong understanding of manufacturing operations and what makes a production facility valuable (or a liability). You don't need to be an engineer, but you need to know the right questions to ask on a plant tour.</li> <li>Experience structuring and running diligence processes. You've built diligence plans, coordinated expert workstreams, and synthesized findings into decision-ready packages.</li> <li>Ability to build a thesis from ambiguous inputs. Anduril's data environment is messy and the production landscape is evolving fast — you need to be comfortable with incomplete information and iterating as you learn.</li> <li>Comfortable navigating cross-functional relationships — you'll work across CorpDev, supply chain, engineering, quality, and division production leadership.</li> <li>Strong written and verbal communication skills. You will present to VP/SVP-level production leadership regularly.</li> </ul> </li> &lt