Anduril Internship 2027–2028: Programs, Deadlines & How to Apply

Last updated: July 2026

Anduril has grown from a startup to a 7,000-person defense technology company valued at over $60 billion, and its internship program is one of the hardest early-career seats in the sector to land. For the 2027–2028 cycle, you apply starting August 2026 and intern summer 2027. Anduril will begin reviewing applications in August 2026, so the prep window is right now.

Quick Facts

Anduril is the fastest-growing defense technology company in the US, with revenue that more than doubled to $2.2 billion in 2025. The internship funnel is highly selective: community data suggests roughly 40% of candidates who reach the interview stage receive offers, but the resume-to-interview conversion is far narrower. U.S. Person status is mandatory.

Externships are short, remote projects where you finish real work for a real company. The Wayfair AI Agent Engineering Externship and Hydroficient IoT Cybersecurity Externship build the systems-engineering and security-first thinking that Anduril’s technical interviews reward. Explore all Externships.

What Is an Anduril Internship?

An Anduril internship is a paid, full-time, 12-week placement that puts students on engineering teams building defense technology, from autonomous drones and sensor fusion platforms to distributed command-and-control software. Interns own real projects from day one: designing prototypes, writing production code, running hardware tests, and presenting design reviews to senior engineers. Anduril was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey and has grown to roughly 7,000 employees with a valuation exceeding $60 billion after a $5 billion Series H in May 2026. The company holds major contracts including a 10-year, up-to-$20 billion enterprise deal with the U.S. Army. Community reports indicate that top-performing interns have received same-day full-time offers.

When Do Anduril Internship Applications Open for 2027–2028?

Anduril’s internship calendar is compressed compared to big tech. For summer 2027, the company has confirmed it will begin reviewing applications in August 2026, with no published close date, meaning rolling review fills seats until the cohort is full. In prior cycles, the full interview process from first contact to offer took roughly 3 to 4 weeks, and top candidates have received same-day offers. The pattern: postings appear in late summer, interviews run through the fall, and offers land before winter break. If you wait until January, most seats are likely filled.

Why You Must Apply the Week Applications Open

Rolling review is the mechanism, and at Anduril it moves fast. The company has 100-plus recruiters on staff and has given same-day offers to top intern candidates in prior cycles. When review starts in August 2026, the earliest applications face the most open seats and the freshest reviewer attention. Anduril does not publish a fixed close date, which means roles stay open until the cohort is full, and once it is full, late applications go nowhere. The defense tech intern market is also intensifying: US equity funding into defense tech startups nearly tripled to $14.2 billion in 2025, and one in four senior backend candidates now actively considers defense roles, up from one in fifteen in 2022. That demand pressure flows down to intern pipelines. Set an alert on anduril.com/open-roles and submit the week postings go live.

Which Anduril Internship Programs Should You Target?

Anduril runs its internships across engineering disciplines, spanning software, mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing teams. The company builds autonomous systems (Ghost drones, Anvil counter-drone interceptors), sensor towers (Lattice), and now the Arsenal-1 autonomous weapons manufacturing facility in Ohio. Which track you target should match the skills you can already evidence, because every round interviews you against that role’s job description and your alignment with Anduril’s defense mission.

See every open role on anduril.com/open-roles. Note the autonomy and AI tilt: Rust is now standard for Anduril’s autonomy stack, and ML deployment (not just research) is a growing need as the Lattice platform scales.

What Are the Eligibility Requirements?

Anduril’s requirements are strict on citizenship and flexible on academic profile. The lines that repeat across every intern posting:

• Enrollment: currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related STEM field.

• Return-to-school requirement: must be a rising senior or otherwise return to school for at least one quarter or semester after the internship concludes. This distinguishes the intern track from the new-grad track.

• U.S. Person status (mandatory): you must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Anduril cannot sponsor work visas for intern positions because roles involve access to export-controlled data under ITAR and EAR regulations.

• Security clearance: not required to apply or interview. Anduril sponsors clearances post-hire for roles that require them. If you are a U.S. citizen with a clean legal and financial record, you are likely eligible for clearance.

Does Anduril Have a GPA Cutoff?

Anduril does not publish a minimum GPA requirement. Community consensus and recruiter guidance indicate that hands-on project experience, robotics, embedded systems, and defense-related work carry significantly more weight than transcript numbers. A strong portfolio of technical projects, hackathon wins, or open-source contributions can compensate for a lower GPA. The emphasis in interviews falls on coding ability, systems thinking, and mission alignment rather than a hard GPA threshold.

What Skills Does Anduril Look For, and How Do You Build Them?

Read across six Anduril intern job descriptions, three SWE variants, one Mechanical, one Electrical, and one Manufacturing, and the pattern is distinctive. Systems-level programming appears in every software role, with C++ and Rust now standard for the autonomy stack. Mission alignment appears in every posting, not as a soft preference but as a screening criterion. Algorithms and data structures are table stakes for the coding rounds, and practical engineering (prototyping, hardware tests, production-grade code) outweighs theoretical credentials. The defense framing changes the behavioral questions too: expect to explain why you want to work in defense, not just why you want to work at a fast-growing company.

How Is Demand for Defense Tech Interns Moving Right Now?

Build These Skills Before You Apply

And every skill in that chart maps to a remote Externship where you finish a real project before a role opens.

How close is the overlap? The Wayfair project is agent-engineering work that yields the build-and-explain evidence Anduril’s technical interviews probe for, and the Hydroficient project hands you a security-and-IoT story that maps directly to defense systems work.

What Is the Anduril Application and Interview Process Like?

Anduril’s interview funnel is a multi-stage process that typically completes in 3 to 4 weeks (average 28 days per Glassdoor):

1. Apply on anduril.com/open-roles. Filter by "Intern" and select a specific track. Apply within the first two weeks of review opening in August 2026 for the best odds.

2. Recruiter phone screen (30 minutes). Background verification, technical interests, and a direct question about your motivation to work in defense technology. This is not a formality: mission alignment is a real filter.

3. Technical coding screen (60 minutes). Conducted on HackerRank or a similar platform. One to two LeetCode medium problems, with emphasis on graph algorithms (DFS, BFS, cycle detection), dynamic programming, and data structures. Anduril may frame problems in a defense context, such as drone pathfinding or sensor network optimization.

4. Super Day: 2 technical interviews plus 1 behavioral (45 to 60 minutes each). Live coding with interviewers covering algorithms, system design, and domain-specific scenarios (robotics, real-time systems, sensor data). Interviewers use intentionally vague prompts to test your ability to ask clarifying questions. Finishing every problem is not required; showing your thought process matters more.

5. Behavioral and mission-alignment interview. Expect questions about why you want to work in defense, how you handle ambiguity, and concrete examples of ownership. STAR methodology expected. Anduril’s culture values low ego, high ownership, and bias toward action.

6. Final decision. Offers can come quickly. Top candidates have received same-day offers in prior cycles. Most decisions arrive within 1 to 2 weeks of the Super Day.

The two skills to drill: systems-level coding fluency for the technical rounds (LeetCode medium to hard, with emphasis on graphs, trees, and DP) and a genuine, specific answer to 'why defense?' that you can sustain across multiple interviewers. Glassdoor rates Anduril interview difficulty at 3.0 out of 5 overall, but intern candidates rate it higher. Community data suggests roughly 40% of candidates who reach the interview stage receive offers.

What Students on Reddit Say

Three community threads show the process from the inside, all paraphrased.

How Do You Stand Out at a Mission-Driven Defense Company?

Three moves, all before a role opens. First, have a real defense answer: Anduril screens for genuine conviction about defense work, and every interviewer tests it independently, so a rehearsed line will not survive the loop. Read about Lattice, Ghost, Anvil, and Arsenal-1 and connect them to something you actually care about. Second, build systems-level projects: Anduril’s stack runs on C++, Rust, and Go, not JavaScript, so a robotics project, an embedded system, or a distributed-systems side project carries more weight than a web app. Third, apply in August: rolling review with same-day offers for top candidates means early applicants face the most open seats and the fastest decisions. And remember: Anduril’s culture values low ego, high ownership, and bias toward action, so every story you tell should show you shipping, not just planning.

What Other Companies Should You Consider?

Anduril is not the only defense technology company hiring interns on a fall-rolling calendar. If you are building a defense-tech internship list, these are the obvious neighbors:

Our tech internships summer 2027 guide maps the whole landscape, timeline by timeline.

FAQ

When do Anduril internship applications open for summer 2027?

Anduril has confirmed it will begin reviewing applications in August 2026 for summer 2027 positions. No fixed close date is published, and rolling review means early applicants face the most open seats. Set an alert on anduril.com/open-roles.

How much does an Anduril internship pay?

Software Engineering interns earn $40 to $55 per hour per the 2027 job posting, with a Levels.fyi median of $50/hr. Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering interns earn $30 to $34/hr. Electrical Engineering interns earn $30 to $40/hr. Corporate housing or stipends of $2,750 to $8,250/month are provided at select locations.

Does Anduril sponsor visas for interns?

No. U.S. Person status (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident) is required for all intern positions because they involve access to export-controlled data under ITAR and EAR. Anduril cannot sponsor work visas for intern roles.

Do I need a security clearance to intern at Anduril?

No. You do not need a clearance to apply or interview. Anduril sponsors clearances post-hire for roles that require them. If you are a U.S. citizen with a clean legal and financial record, you are likely eligible. Clearance processing takes roughly 9 months for Top Secret.

What is the Anduril internship interview process like?

A recruiter phone screen (30 minutes), a technical coding screen on HackerRank (60 minutes, 1 to 2 LeetCode medium problems), then a Super Day with 2 technical interviews and 1 behavioral round. The full process averages 28 days. Mission alignment is tested in every round.

Does Anduril have a GPA cutoff for interns?

No published minimum GPA. Anduril values hands-on project experience, robotics work, embedded systems, and defense-related projects over transcript numbers. Strong technical portfolios and open-source contributions carry more weight than a decimal on your GPA.

Do Anduril interns get return offers?

Anduril does not publish a specific conversion rate, but community reports indicate that top-performing interns receive full-time offers, sometimes on the same day the internship ends. The company uses internships as a key talent pipeline and invests in converting strong performers.

Is the Anduril internship remote or in-person?

All Anduril internships are fully in-person. Locations include Costa Mesa, CA; Irvine, CA; Atlanta, GA; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; and Reston, VA. There is no remote or hybrid option for intern roles.

Anduril’s intern seats fill fast under rolling review, and the mission-alignment bar means you need more than algorithms to get in. Spend the runway building proof: a remote Externship turns 'interested in defense tech' into a finished project you can point at in August.