Air Vehicle Lead

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).

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Job Description

Are you a passionate and innovative aerospace engineering leader looking to develop next-generation autonomous aircraft? Are you eager to make a positive difference in the world and work alongside mission-driven, values-focused teammates? Shield AI is just the place for you.

As the Air Vehicle Lead for a new aircraft program you will serve as the senior technical leader responsible for the design, development, integration, and maturation of the air vehicle. You will own the technical integrity of the aircraft and lead the multidisciplinary engineering effort required to take the vehicle from requirements and architecture through detailed design, build, ground test, flight test, and production.

This is a highly technical, hands-on leadership role. You will work across aerodynamics, flight sciences, structures, mechanical systems, propulsion, avionics, electrical systems, flight controls, manufacturing, and test to ensure the aircraft performs as an integrated system. You will be expected to make difficult technical trades, challenge assumptions, manage risk, and drive the team toward simple, robust solutions at speed.

• Own the Air Vehicle: Serve as the technical leader for the aircraft, with responsibility for overall vehicle architecture, technical performance, integration, and design integrity throughout the development lifecycle.
• Lead Multidisciplinary Engineering: Provide technical direction across aerodynamics and flight sciences, structures, mechanical systems, propulsion, avionics, electrical systems, flight controls, and other air vehicle disciplines.
• Drive System-Level Trades: Lead first-principles engineering trades across performance, weight, range, payload, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and technical risk. Ensure subsystem decisions optimize the aircraft as a whole rather than individual components.
• Lead Design Execution: Drive the aircraft from requirements and conceptual design through preliminary and critical design, hardware release, build, integration, ground test, and flight test. Establish clear technical priorities and rapidly resolve issues that threaten program execution.
• Stay Hands-On: Remain deeply engaged in the engineering work. Participate directly in design reviews, technical problem solving, root-cause investigations, test activities, and critical design decisions.
• Own Technical Risk: Identify the technical problems most likely to prevent mission success and drive them to closure. Establish appropriate engineering rigor while balancing analysis, test, schedule, and speed.
• Build-Test-Learn: Create a rapid development environment that uses prototypes, ground testing, flight testing, and real-world data to retire risk and continuously improve the aircraft.
• Drive Integration: Ensure interfaces between structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, payloads, software, and other systems are understood, controlled, and successfully integrated.
• Design for Production: Partner closely with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations to ensure the aircraft can transition from development into repeatable production. Drive designs that balance performance with producibility, cost, reliability, and maintainability.
• Lead Suppliers and Partners: Provide technical leadership for critical suppliers and externally developed systems, ensuring supplier designs and hardware meet aircraft-level requirements and program objectives.
• Set the Engineering Standard: Establish a culture of technical ownership, first-principles thinking, urgency, disciplined engineering judgment, and accountability. Mentor engineers and technical…