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Air Vehicle Lead, Chief Engineer

Shield AI· X-BAT Division – X-BAT Engineering
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Hybrid (Seattle, WA), Hybrid (Dallas, TX), Hybrid (San Diego, CA)$212.3k - $318.5kFull Time EmployeePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Senior technical leader responsible for the design, development, integration, and maturation of the air vehicle for a new aircraft program, owning technical integrity and leading multidisciplinary engineering from requirements through production.

Responsibilities

  • Own the Air Vehicle: Serve as the technical leader for the aircraft, with responsibility for overall vehicle architecture, technical performance, integration, and design integrity throughout the development lifecycle.
  • Lead Multidisciplinary Engineering: Provide technical direction across aerodynamics and flight sciences, structures, mechanical systems, propulsion, avionics, electrical systems, flight controls, and other air vehicle disciplines.
  • Drive System-Level Trades: Lead first-principles engineering trades across performance, weight, range, payload, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and technical risk. Ensure subsystem decisions optimize the aircraft as a whole.
  • Lead Design Execution: Drive the aircraft from requirements and conceptual design through preliminary and critical design, hardware release, build, integration, ground test, and flight test.
  • Stay Hands-On: Remain deeply engaged in the engineering work. Participate directly in design reviews, technical problem solving, root-cause investigations, test activities, and critical design decisions.
  • Own Technical Risk: Identify the technical problems most likely to prevent mission success and drive them to closure. Establish appropriate engineering rigor while balancing analysis, test, schedule, and speed.
  • Build-Test-Learn: Create a rapid development environment that uses prototypes, ground testing, flight testing, and real-world data to retire risk and continuously improve the aircraft.
  • Drive Integration: Ensure interfaces between structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, payloads, software, and other systems are understood, controlled, and successfully integrated.
  • Design for Production: Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations to ensure the aircraft can transition from development into repeatable production.
  • Lead Suppliers and Partners: Provide technical leadership for critical suppliers and externally developed systems, ensuring supplier designs meet aircraft-level requirements and program objectives.
  • Set the Engineering Standard: Establish a culture of technical ownership, first-principles thinking, urgency, disciplined engineering judgment, and accountability. Mentor engineers and raise program capability.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field. Master's degree or higher preferred.
  • 15+ years of relevant aircraft development experience with significant technical leadership on complex aerospace programs.
  • Experience leading development of an air vehicle or major aircraft system through multiple development lifecycle phases (design, build, integration, ground test, flight test, production).
  • Broad technical understanding across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, flight controls, avionics, mechanical systems, and vehicle integration.
  • Hands-on technical leadership with ability to dive deep while maintaining system-level perspective.
  • Proven ability to make difficult technical decisions with incomplete information and drive teams to speed.
  • Strong understanding of aircraft design principles, system integration, verification/validation, and relationship to aircraft performance.
  • Experience partnering with manufacturing and suppliers to transition hardware from development to production.
  • Track record of delivering hardware despite technical challenges and development cycles.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain required security clearance.
  • Demonstrated integrity, teamwork, high standards, and respectful collaboration.

Skills

Required:Air vehicle developmentSystems integration

Benefits

  • Pay range: $212,320 - $318,480 per year
  • Full-time regular employee offer package: Pay within range + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
  • Temporary employee offer package: Pay within range + temporary benefits after 60 days
  • Salary is influenced by factors including skill set, experience, licenses/certifications, and location
  • Offers contingent on cleared background and reference checks
  • Equal opportunity employer; accommodations available on request
Last updated Oct 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Shield AI

Autonomy for the world.

Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

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