This post aims to be a general overview of what to expect regarding the Anduril Interview Process for Engineers.
Anduril is a company that takes heavy pride as a defense tech or defense product company. They do not associate themselves as being a defense contractor. Anduril does not do cost plus as a business model, but instead relies on their own self funding to deliver to customers. As a result, this skips much of the government bureaucracy so that they can meet forecasted schedules and costs.
This does, however, result in a more challenging work environment.
The hours may be long and the work may be intense.
Take this as you will.
The interview process for engineers at Anduril is relatively straight forward broken down with a recruiter phone screen, interview with the hiring manager, then an on-site interview with 5-6 engineers.
1st Round – Recruiter Screen
The recruiter screen is pretty straight forward and is broken down by some basic housekeeping questions, culture fit questions, and curveball questions.
Housekeeping Questions:
- Are you actively interviewing with other companies?
- Are you eligible to obtain a clearance?
- What are your base salary expectations?
Culture Fit Questions
- How familiar are you with Anduril?
- What makes you interested in working at Anduril?
Curveball Questions
- What technical challenge have you overcame and how have you demonstrated leadership regarding product quality?
- What have you brought into the world that hadn’t been brought into the world or existed before?
2nd Round – Hiring Manager Interview
This will be like your typical recruiter screening, but a little more in-depth technically.
The second round will likely be with the hiring manager and they will ask basic housekeeping questions.
This will likely be a zoom interview.
Expect the following interview questions, but tailor some of the specifics to the job that you are applying for.
- Tell me about yourself
- Why are you interested in working at Anduril?
- Tell me what quality means to you.
- Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult person.
- Tell me about a time you took ownership on something (Anduril is big on ownership)
- Are you familiar with PCBAs?
- Are you familiar with RCCA (Root Cause & Correction Analysis)?
- Have you done FMEA before?
- Tell me about your familiarity with statistical analysis (MiniTab, cp, ck, etc.)
- Are you familiar with minicab?
- What is your familiarity with GD&T.
- Do you have any questions for us?
3rd Round – Onsite
This will be a long day consisting of 5-6+ interviews, each at approximately around 30 minutes each. This will take a lot out of you so you will need to make sure you are well rested going in. Make sure to arrive early so you don’t stress out about traffic or parking. Plan to arrive ~1hr early and have a small meal and take some time to chill before going all in.
Directions regarding the on-site interview will be straightforward. The lobby and bathrooms are nice. Take advantage of the snacks and drinks as you can. Make sure to prep the following couple of days leading up to the interview so that you will be ready for 5-6 consecutive interviews with 1 15 minute break. You might even be asked to do a lunch interview at the end, so be ready for that as well.
The below will be a sample breakdown of the various interviews and questions you may have and how you will have to go about when interviewing with these people.
Follow the directions that you’ll be sent in an email for the onsite and you will end up at the lobby. From then on, your recruiter will meet with you and if time allows, you will be given a ~15 minute tour of the facility and some of the products that they are working on.
3.1 – Onsite 1 – Engineer
- Tell me about yourself
- Why are you interested in working at Anduril
- Tell me about a time you’ve improved an existing product, process, or feature
- Tell me about a time that you’ve had to confront an existing coworker
- What is your understanding of FMEA?
- How would you quantify items in an FMEA?
- Do you have any questions for us.
3.2 – Onsite 2 – Engineer
- Tell me about yourself
- Why are you interested in working at Anduril
- Tell me about a time you’ve improved an existing product, process, or feature
- Tell me about a time that you’ve had to confront an existing coworker
- If we manufactured XXX+ units, and those units are wrong, what are the steps you would take to correct the issue?
- Do you have any questions for us.
3.3 – Onsite 3 – Program Management
- Tell me about yourself
- Draw for me your understanding of the new product introduction process and what key stakeholders are involved
- Tell me about a product that you’ve worked on and what metrics you look at for a successful product launch
- Do you have any quantifiable data such as first pass yield in a high production rate environment?
- Do you have any questions for me
3.4 – Onsite 4 – Lead Engineer
- Tell me about yourself
- Tell me about an engineering project that you’ve worked on
- Tell me about the boundary conditions, load cases, materials that went in your design
- Tell me about the machined components in your design
- Tell me about the interfacing and mating techniques and components in your design
- What were some of the clearances that you used in your design? Why?
- What materials did you use for your design? Why?
- Draw a shaft and label appropriate GD&T and respective datums
- How do you determine if something is OOT (Out of tolerance)?
- What is the difference between AB, A-B, B-A, BA in GD&T
- What does the stress strain curve look like for steel?
- What is the relationship between stress and strain called?
- If I made a change to this mechanical system, how would this mechanical system be affected? (Shortening moment arm, lengthening moment arm, etc.)
- Draw what the curve looks like for a load cell response for a linear output or step function output.
3.5 – Onsite 5 – Sr. Director
- Tell me about yourself
- Why are you interested in working at Anduril?
- Why did you do XXX in your career?
- Are you familiar with statistical analysis? (cp, ck, etc.)
- What is your throught process in designing something and applying GD&T? (Flatness, parallelism, perpendicularity, runout, true position, etc.)
- What was your favorite subject in school?
3.6 – Onsite 6 – Engineering Lead / Lunch
The lunch interview will most likely be chill and be more of a “vibe check” than anything. That being said, don’t let your guard down too much. Be prepared to ask questions. They will use this as a chance to show you more of what the facility will be like. You’ll get to see the cafeteria, get free lunch, and maybe the interviewer will take you around to spots such as the gym or other areas on the campus. Don’t overthink this portion. If you’ve made it this far, you deserve to give yourself a pat on the back. The on-site interview at Anduril is a lot and will take a lot out of you. Hopefully you take the rest of the day off.
Expect to hear about the final decision in 5 business days or so.
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