Obsolescence and Lifecycle Management Lead; R5299

Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. 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). Follow Shield AI on Linked In, X, Instagram, and You Tube.

The Obsolescence and Lifecycle Management Management Lead is a senior individual contributor responsible for owning the V-BAT sustainment strategy for parts, suppliers, components, assemblies, and subsystems that are becoming unavailable, unsupported, high-risk, cost-prohibitive, or difficult to sustain.

This role drives the operating mechanism for identifying obsolescence risk early, assessing impact to production and fielded aircraft, and coordinating mitigation plans before part shortages, supplier changes, or component end-of-life issues affect V-BAT readiness, repair capability, customer support, or long-term sustainment.

The Obsolescence and Lifecycle Management Management Lead partners closely with Supply Chain, Sustainment Engineering, Product Engineering, Configuration Management, Quality, Manufacturing, Finance, Fleet Support, and Operations to ensure lifecycle risks are visible, prioritized, and actively managed. This role is accountable for translating supplier and part availability risks into clear mitigation plans, business decisions, engineering actions, and sustainment priorities.

• Own and maintain the V-BAT obsolescence management plan, lifecycle risk register, and associated mitigation roadmap.
• Identify, track, and prioritize end-of-life parts, supplier discontinuance notices, aging components, high-risk materials, unsupported components, and long-lead or difficult-to-source items.
• Assess obsolescence risk across parts, suppliers, components, assemblies, subsystems, ground equipment, support equipment, and fielded configurations.
• Determine potential impact to production, repair, spares, depot activity, field support, customer commitments, and long-term sustainment.
• Coordinate last-time-buy recommendations and decisions with Supply Chain, Engineering, Finance, Manufacturing, Operations, and Sustainment leadership.
• Work with Supply Chain to evaluate supplier risk, lead times, allocation constraints, discontinuance notices, minimum order quantities, and long-term availability.
• Partner with Engineering to identify alternate parts, form-fit-function replacements, redesign needs, qualification requirements, and technical mitigation options.
• Coordinate with Configuration Management and Change Control to determine which aircraft, builds, configurations, customers, spares, or fielded assets are affected by obsolescence risk.
• Support lifecycle planning for avionics, propulsion components, structures, payload interfaces, electrical components, ground equipment, support equipment, and other V-BAT subsystems.
• Create and drive mitigation plans for obsolete or at-risk components, including alternate sourcing, redesign, requalification, lifetime buys, repair strategy changes, or inventory positioning.
• Ensure mitigation plans include clear owners, timelines, decision points, cost considerations, technical dependencies, and fleet impact assessments.
• Maintain visibility into supplier health, supplier transitions, diminishing manufacturing sources, lead-time changes, material availability, and long-term supportability.
• Partner with Finance and Operations to evaluate cost, inventory, and readiness tradeoffs associated with lifetime buys, redesigns, alternate sourcing, and risk acceptance.
• Provide regular obsolescence and lifecycle status updates to engineering, supply chain, sustainment, and executive leadership.
• Escalate high-risk lifecycle issues before they impact V-BAT readiness, customer support, production continuity, or repair capability.
• Improve obsolescence management processes, reporting mechanisms, lifecycle dashboards, and risk review forums as the sustainment function scales.

• 6+ years of experience in obsolescence management, lifecycle management, supply chain, sustainment engineering, product support, manufacturing operations, technical program management, or complex hardware sustainment.
• Demonstrated experience managing part, supplier, component, or subsystem lifecycle risk in a complex hardware, aerospace, defense, electronics, aviation, robotics, or advanced manufacturing environment.
• Experience identifying and managing end-of-life parts, supplier discontinuance notices, diminishing manufacturing sources, long-lead components, alternate sourcing strategies, and last-time-buy decisions.
• Strong understanding of how obsolescence risk impacts production, repair capability, spares planning, field support, fleet readiness, customer commitments, and long-term sustainment.
• Experience working across…