Staff Engineer, Ground Vehicle Advance Manufacturing

The role

This role leads manufacturing engineering for advanced ground vehicle and mobility systems, including chassis, suspension, braking, hydraulics, and pneumatics. The work covers both prototype and production operations, with design, quality, and production teams.

What you will do

• Lead manufacturing engineering for vehicle and mobility systems
• Develop and optimize manufacturing processes, tooling, work instructions and production flows
• Support vehicle integration, testing and production readiness
• Partner with design engineering on manufacturability, reliability and testability
• Lead root cause investigations and corrective actions for manufacturing issues
• Develop work instructions, quality standards and inspection methods
• Support supplier qualification, process validation and production readiness reviews
• Lead DFM/DFA reviews and transition new products into manufacturing
• Support failure analysis and reliability improvement
• Mentor junior manufacturing engineers

Required qualifications

• 7+ years of manufacturing engineering experience in automotive, mobility, heavy equipment or defense vehicle systems
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Automotive Engineering or a related field
• Experience in prototype manufacturing in a startup or rapid-growth environment
• Experience with vehicle integration and assembly
• Experience with hydraulics and pneumatics
• Experience with chassis and braking systems
• Experience with mechanical production systems
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment and adapt to changing priorities
• Knowledge of manufacturing process development and production scaling
• Strong understanding of DFM/DFA principles
• Experience with root cause analysis and corrective action methodologies

Nice to have

• Automotive OEM, defense vehicle or off-road vehicle experience
• Experience supporting prototype-to-production transitions
• Knowledge of welding, fabrication and structural assembly processes
• Familiarity with lean manufacturing and production optimization
• Experience with ERP/MES systems and manufacturing data analysis
• Strong project management skills
• Knowledge of quality standards such as AS9100 or ISO 9001
• Proficiency in CAD software

Benefits

• Bonus for full-time regular employees
• Benefits for full-time regular employees
• Equity for full-time regular employees
• Temporary benefits package for temporary employees, applicable after 60 days of employment

Before you apply

• All offers are contingent on a cleared background check and possible reference check
• Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits
• Salary is influenced by skill set, experience level, licenses and certifications, and work location

About the company

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company whose mission is protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies.