Director, Engineering Excellence & Design Standards

The role

This job leads engineering design standards across Shield AI programs, including XBAT and VBAT. The role covers aerospace design practices, CAD, documentation, configuration management and engineering quality, as an individual contributor.

What you will do

• Establish and own engineering design standards across programs, including XBAT and VBAT
• Define best practices for aerospace design, analysis workflows and system-level engineering rigor
• Develop standards for CAD usage, drawing quality, standard notes, release processes and engineering documentation
• Create EBOM and MBOM, and drive part demand for manufacturing and supply chain handoff
• Build and mature an engineering excellence framework that scales with the company
• Partner with engineering leadership to align teams on consistent ways of working
• Ensure standards are practical, accessible and consistently applied across teams
• Influence design decisions across disciplines without becoming a bottleneck
• Drive improvements in configuration management, documentation quality and design consistency

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in aerospace or high-performance hardware design environments
• Deep experience in organizations with strong engineering standards and design rigor
• Broad technical background across multiple engineering domains such as mechanical, aerospace and systems
• Experience defining or applying design standards, documentation practices and configuration management systems
• Familiarity with MIL-STD-810, DO-160 and ASME Y14.5 (GD&T)
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior engineers and drive alignment across teams
• Strong track record of improving engineering quality, consistency and scalability
• Excellent communication skills for technical audiences

Benefits

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

Before you apply

• Ability to obtain an S//SAR level security clearance is desired
• All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check
• 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.