Air Vehicle Lead, Chief Engineer

The role

You will lead the technical design and development of a new autonomous aircraft as its senior technical leader. You will own the aircraft's architecture, integration and technical risk through design, build, test and production.

What you will do

• Own the air vehicle as its technical leader, including architecture, performance, integration and design integrity
• Lead multidisciplinary engineering across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls and other disciplines
• Lead system-level engineering trades across performance, weight, cost, reliability, schedule and risk
• Drive the aircraft from requirements and design through build, ground test, flight test and production
• Stay hands-on in design reviews, problem solving, root-cause investigations and test activities
• Own technical risk and drive high-impact problems to closure
• Run a build-test-learn development environment using prototypes, ground and flight testing
• Ensure interfaces between aircraft systems are understood and successfully integrated
• Work with manufacturing, supply chain and quality to design for production
• Provide technical leadership for critical suppliers and mentor engineers

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
• 15+ years of relevant aircraft development experience with significant technical leadership
• Experience leading an air vehicle or major aircraft system through multiple development phases
• Broad technical understanding of aircraft development and ability to make informed multi-discipline trades
• Proven ability to work as a hands-on technical leader while keeping a system-level view
• Record of making difficult technical decisions with incomplete information
• Understanding of aircraft design principles, system integration, and verification and validation
• Experience partnering with manufacturing and suppliers to move hardware into production
• Track record of owning complex development efforts and delivering hardware
• Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the program
• A record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding high standards, and treating others with kindness and respect

Nice to have

• Master's degree or higher

Benefits

• Bonus
• Benefits
• Equity (full-time regular employees)
• Temporary benefits package after 60 days of employment (temporary employees)

Before you apply

• Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check
• The program requires a security clearance, which you must be able to obtain and maintain
• Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits

About the company

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that builds intelligent systems to protect service members and civilians. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies.