Manager, Environmental Control Systems & Thermal Engineering; R6306

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 www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on Linked In, X, Instagram, and You Tube.

As Manager, Environmental Control Systems & Thermal, you will directly lead and develop a team of individual contributors responsible for environmental control systems, aircraft thermal management, and associated fluid and heat-transfer hardware on the X-BAT program, while supporting the advancement of these capabilities across Group 5 programs. You will be accountable for team execution and people development while maintaining enough technical depth to guide architecture, requirements, design, integration, test, supplier execution, and flight readiness.

This position requires a balance of direct people leadership, technical judgment, and hands‑on engagement when needed in a fast-moving aircraft development environment. The ideal candidate is an experienced engineering manager who can set clear priorities, grow strong engineers, create a high technical bar, and help the team deliver meaningful capability to operators quickly.

• People Leadership and Development:
  Manage, mentor, and develop individual contributors; set goals, give feedback, support growth, and build a high-trust, high-standard team.
• Team Planning and Execution:
  Set priorities, ownership, staffing, and execution cadence for X-BAT and Group 5 work; remove blockers and manage dependencies.
• Technical Direction and Review:
  Guide ECS and thermal architecture, trades, and design reviews across thermal environments, cooling, airflow, ducting, heat exchangers, fluid circuits, and related hardware.
• Requirements, Risk, and Maturity:
  Set expectations for requirements, reviews, verification, risk management, configuration control, and design release through flight-ready hardware.
• Vehicle Integration and Interfaces:
  Resolve interfaces with structures, propulsion, avionics, EWIS, payloads, manufacturing, systems engineering, and test teams.
• Test and Flight Readiness:
  Lead component, qualification, ground, and flight test planning; ensure data, anomaly resolution, and corrective actions support hardware delivery.
• Hardware and Suppliers:
  Set expectations for components, specifications, SOWs, supplier reviews, prototype builds, and acceptance activities.
• Hands‑on Technical Leadership:
  Engage in first-principles analysis and root‑cause investigations, coach engineers, and unblock complex technical problems.
• Communication and Accountability:
  Represent the team in program and engineering reviews; communicate decisions, risks, progress, resources, and dependencies.

• Clearance required:
  
  US Citizens Only & Must have an Active Secret or higher clearance.
• Experience:
  
  8+ years in aerospace environmental control systems, thermal engineering, fluid systems, or comparable aircraft mechanical systems development.
• People Leadership:
  Experience directly managing and developing individual contributors, including setting expectations, giving feedback, and supporting career growth.
• Education:
  
  B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Core Fundamentals:
  Deep understanding of thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and aircraft thermal management.
• System Development Leadership:
  Ability to guide architecture, requirements, analysis, design,…