Freelance Java Backend Developer Jobs in Irvine, CA

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.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Maritime Digital Production (MDP) is the software and digital systems function within Anduril's Heavy Metal division. We build and deploy the full technology stack that powers Anduril's shipbuilding factories: the data infrastructure that makes every machine and sensor visible in real time, the manufacturing execution system (ArsenalOS) that workers and planners use every shift, the scheduling engine that replans production in minutes instead of days, and the AI systems that eliminate manual toil from both the shop floor and business operations.
MDP operates at the boundary between Operational Technology and Information Technology. Our systems live where factory-floor machines, edge compute, and OT networks meet enterprise platforms and cloud infrastructure. We incubate solutions close to the production line, validate them with real operators building real hardware, harden them for reliability and security, and then scale them across multiple sites. The environment is fast, physical, and consequential. When our systems go down, production stops. The output of our work is not a dashboard: it is a ship.
This is not a support function. It is a strategic investment by Anduril in the premise that digitizing the manufacturing lifecycle end-to-end, from engineering definition through scheduling through execution through field feedback, is how Heavy Metal will out-build, out-adapt, and out-scale the traditional defense industrial base. MDP is scaling from a founding team to 70+ engineers across multiple U.S. sites. You will be joining early, working on hard problems with real operational stakes, and shaping how manufacturing software is built at Anduril from the ground up.
ABOUT THE JOB
As a Software Engineer, Backend on the Systems Integrity Group (SIG), you will build backend services and APIs that power simulation, digital twin validation, and V&V automation systems. You will develop systems that integrate simulation frameworks, geometric validation services, and 3D visualization data with enterprise systems to verify manufactured output matches engineering intent.
WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Design and implement backend services that orchestrate simulation frameworks, digital twin validation workflows, and V&V automation pipelines.
• Develop APIs that expose validation results, geometric comparison data, and simulation outputs to downstream consumers including UE5 visualization, quality systems, and operational dashboards.
• Partner with manufacturing engineers and factory operators to understand production workflows and translate them into backend service requirements.
• Write production-quality code with comprehensive tests, participating in code review and architectural discussions.
• Build backend integration layers that retrieve 3D CAD geometry, as-built scan data, quality measurements, and engineering specifications from PLM, MES, and quality management systems.
• Design and maintain databases optimized for storing simulation results, validation findings, geometric comparison data, and historical V&V records.
• Implement event-driven architectures that trigger validation workflows when manufacturing milestones occur or design changes are released.
• Deploy and operate your systems in factory environments, including edge compute clusters and OT networks.
• Optimize backend performance to support computationally intensive workloads including geometric validation, simulation orchestration, and 3D data processing.
• Build data pipelines that feed real-time production data from the Unified Namespace to digital twin simulations and 3D visualization systems.
• Leverage AI tooling (coding assistants, automation) in your development workflow and contribute to team engineering practices.
• Join an on-call rotation supporting production factory systems.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 6+ years of experience in a software engineering role building production systems, ideally in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong expertise in backend software development with foundations in distributed systems and API design.
• Strong technical fluency in modern software architectures, APIs, distributed systems, CI/CD, and cloud or edge infrastructure.
• Proficiency in backend programming languages (e.g., Python, Go, Java, Rust).
• Experience with database management systems including relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Redis).
• Strong understanding of RESTful API design, GraphQL, or gRPC for building scalable service interfaces.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and deploying backend services in production environments.
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) for deploying backend services.
• Understanding of software development best practices including version control (Git), testing frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience building systems that must operate reliably under real-world operational constraints (high availability, low latency, or constrained environments).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams.
• Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• U.S. Person status is required as this position needs to access export controlled data.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in manufacturing, industrial, or OT-adjacent domains (MES, SCADA, PLC integration, factory automation, IoT).
• Previous experience building backend systems that integrate with PLM (Teamcenter, Windchill), quality management systems, or CAD/CAM platforms.
• Experience with simulation frameworks, digital twin systems, or backend services supporting V&V automation.
• Background in systems that process and query 3D geometric data, point clouds, mesh data, or CAD models.
• Experience with event-driven architectures, message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ, NATS), or stream processing frameworks.
• Familiarity with frontier AI tooling, AI coding assistants, and AI-enabled software development workflows.
• Experience in hyper-growth startup-like environments, with demonstrated success balancing speed, ambiguity, and long-term system health.
• Familiarity with microservices architecture patterns, API gateway patterns, and service mesh technologies.
• Experience with monitoring and logging tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Datadog) for backend observability.
• Experience in manufacturing industries with hands-on exposure to assembly lines or production environments.
• Knowledge of computational geometry, 3D data processing, or geometric validation algorithms.
• Understanding of verification and validation processes in aerospace, defense, or regulated manufacturing industries.
• Experience building backend services that support 3D visualization applications (Unreal Engine, Unity, or web-based 3D).
• Eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.

US Salary Range
$191,000-$253,000 USD
The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:
Benefits
At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you're supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information, Explore Our Benefits.
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Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've observed a rise in sophisticated phishing and fraudulent schemes where individuals impersonate Anduril representatives, luring job seekers with false interviews or job offers. These scammers often attempt to extract payment or sensitive personal information.
To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:

• No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.
• Please always verify communications:
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• Exercise Caution with Unsolicited Outreach: If you receive any communication that appears suspicious, contains grammatical errors, or makes unusual requests, do not engage. Always confirm the sender's email domain is @anduril.com before providing any personal information or clicking on links.
• What to Do If You Suspect Fraud: Should you encounter any questionable or fraudulent outreach claiming to be from Anduril, please report it immediately to contact@anduril.com. Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.

Data Privacy
To view Anduril's candidate data privacy policy, please visit https://anduril.com/applicant-privacy-notice/.
By submitting your application, you consent to Anduril Industries using a third-party service provider to conduct pre-employment risk, integrity, and due diligence screening and assessing potential risks as part of your application process. This third-party service provider provides risk-intelligence services that may include analysis of sanctions and watchlists, adverse media, public-record information, and other lawful open-source or commercial data sources. This third-party service provider does not act as a consumer reporting agency. Use of this provider helps to ensure compliance with applicable laws and protect technology, intellectual property, and organizational security.