Imagine flying five times the speed of sound, or working on an aircraft that can take off and land without a runway to fly long distances.
Maybe even help send a spacecraft into orbit?
Those are some of the areas Palmer Luckey’s defense-focused technology startup Anduril Industries Inc. in Irvine appears to have an interest in for future business opportunities, though details are sketchy.
Hints about the new directions for the secretive company, which to date has had a stated focus on the military and boosting border security, has recently been coming from a not-so-secure source: tweets and online job postings.
Luckey, who co-founded Anduril in 2017, said in a tweet on March 1: “Our Hypersonic Systems team at Anduril needs a great thermal engineer!”
“Putting out the call on Twitter in case you know the right person, ideally someone who likes things that fly at Mach 5,” the 27-year-old entrepreneur continued in the posting.
An airplane flying at the speed of Mach 5 could zip from New York to Los Angeles in less than an hour.
160 Workers & Growing
Outside of the cryptic tweet, there are few clues as to what kind of project this may be.
The job is also posted on the company’s website, with a note that candidates must have “a passion for defending the United States and her allies,” indicating it is staying firmly in the military sphere.
There are others already in the hypersonic field, including Boeing, which presented a pictorial rendering for a future passenger jet that could travel as fast as Mach 5 almost two years ago.
When queried by the Business Journal, an Anduril spokesperson limited the response to the following: “We are always on the lookout for great people who want to work on critical national security challenges.”
The company had about 160 workers at the end of 2019, with most located at Anduril’s new headquarters at the corner of Michelson Drive and Jamboree Road, a few blocks from John Wayne Airport.
As of last week, some 40 job openings were listed on the company’s website, with most of the tech-heavy positions based in Irvine.
VTOL Interest
Another one of the directions the company seems to be taking is the development of long-range VTOLs, a type of aircraft.
VTOL stands for vertical take-off and landing; it’s an emerging transportation type that already has a few area players (see story, this page).
“Anduril is building an unannounced long-range VTOL aircraft with a very novel payload and mission,” Luckey tweeted last month.
“I am expanding this team, so hit me up if you or someone you know is interested!”
Lockheed, Raytheon
Anduril, which makes high-tech surveillance systems, as well as other AI-powered military technology and products, is quickly gaining a reputation as one that can successfully challenge defense stalwarts such as Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.
That message is catching on with customers—users of Anduril technology now are reported to include a number of Homeland Security and military agencies, both in the U.S. and abroad—and with investors.
“The military’s already the vast majority of our business,” Luckey told the Business Journal late last year.
Last year, Anduril secured $127 million in a funding round—its backers include Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund—putting its valuation in the $1 billion range.
It was the fastest that a local technology company achieved unicorn status in some six years, when the Luckey-founded Oculus VR, vaulted past $1 billion in a matter of years and was snapped up by Facebook for about $3 billion.
Luckey has a personal fortune the Business Journal estimates at $840 million following the sale of the virtual reality headset maker to Facebook.
Space Orbit
In another recent move, Anduril indicates it may be ready to head into Earth orbit, posting a job for a “Technical Program Manager – Space Systems.”
The undated job posting touts the “trying environment of space” and says the company is in a “unique position for market entry.”
“Come join this passionate team of experienced engineers on the ground floor as we embark on these projects and make systems that will be in orbit in the time frame only recently realized by modern space startups,” the posting adds.
