Deputy Chief Engineer, X-BAT

The role

You will act as the primary technical deputy to the X-BAT Air Vehicle Lead on the design, development, integration, test and maturation of the X-BAT autonomous combat aircraft. You will lead day-to-day engineering across disciplines and drive aircraft-level technical decisions and risk management.

What you will do

• Act as primary technical deputy to the X-BAT Air Vehicle Lead.
• Maintain the technical baseline: requirements, architecture, interfaces, configuration, performance, verification and airworthiness evidence.
• Lead day-to-day integration of engineering across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, software, autonomy, manufacturing and test.
• Drive aircraft-level technical decisions and trade studies.
• Establish and manage a technical-risk process with owners and mitigation plans.
• Lead major technical and design reviews.
• Partner with Program Management, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, and Test and Flight Operations.
• Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions for complex aircraft-level problems.
• Develop the technical leadership of engineering managers and leads.
• Communicate status, risks and recovery plans to leadership, executives, customers and partners.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 12+ years of progressive experience on complex aircraft, military aerospace, autonomous aircraft or similar integrated aerospace products.
• Demonstrated technical leadership on an aircraft-development program, such as Chief Engineer, Deputy Chief Engineer, Air Vehicle Lead, Systems Engineering Lead or IPT Lead.
• Broad understanding of aircraft design and integration across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience taking an aircraft or complex aerospace system through several lifecycle stages, such as design, fabrication, ground test, flight test, qualification or production.
• Experience establishing system requirements, technical baselines, interface definitions, design reviews, verification plans and engineering risks.
• Ability to make high-quality technical decisions with incomplete information and aggressive timelines.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for executive and customer audiences.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Nice to have

• Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Engineering Management, or a related discipline.
• Experience developing clean-sheet military, fighter, collaborative combat, unmanned or advanced VTOL aircraft.
• Experience with propulsion integration, flight controls, vehicle management, autonomy integration, low-observable aircraft, or weapons and mission-systems integration.
• Experience supporting ground test, envelope expansion, developmental flight test, airworthiness or mishap-risk reduction.
• Familiarity with military airworthiness frameworks, V&V, configuration management and model-based systems engineering.
• Experience moving an aircraft from rapid prototype into qualification, rate production and deployment.
• Experience working with the Department of Defense, military customers, suppliers and industry partners.

Before you apply

• U.S. security clearance must be obtained and maintained.

About the company

Shield AI is hiring for the X-BAT program to help build a new class of autonomous combat aircraft. The posting describes the company as one that may offer a place to redefine airpower.