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Shield AI is seeking a Chief Engineer to serve as the senior technical leader for the Air Vehicle on a new Air Force MMA (Multi-Mission Aircraft) program. This is a highly technical, hands-on leadership role responsible for the design, development, integration, and maturation of an autonomous aircraft from requirements and architecture through detailed design, build, ground test, flight test, and production.
You will own the technical integrity of the aircraft and lead the multidisciplinary engineering effort across aerodynamics, flight sciences, structures, mechanical systems, propulsion, avionics, electrical systems, flight controls, and manufacturing. Key responsibilities include:
• Serve as the technical leader for overall vehicle architecture, technical performance, integration, and design integrity throughout the development lifecycle
• Provide technical direction across all air vehicle disciplines and drive system-level engineering trades across performance, weight, range, payload, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule, and technical risk
• Drive the aircraft from requirements and conceptual design through preliminary and critical design, hardware release, build, integration, ground test, and flight test
• Remain deeply engaged in engineering work, participating directly in design reviews, technical problem solving, root-cause investigations, and critical design decisions
• Identify and drive closure on technical problems most likely to prevent mission success, establishing appropriate engineering rigor while balancing analysis, test, schedule, and speed
• Create a rapid development environment using prototypes, ground testing, flight testing, and real-world data to retire risk and continuously improve the aircraft
• Ensure successful integration of interfaces between structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, payloads, software, and other systems
• Partner closely with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations to transition the aircraft from development into repeatable production
• Provide technical leadership for critical suppliers and externally developed systems
• Establish a culture of technical ownership, first-principles thinking, urgency, and disciplined engineering judgment while mentoring engineers and technical leaders
This role requires a hands-on technical leader who can make difficult technical trades, challenge assumptions, manage risk, and drive the team toward simple, robust solutions at speed.
REQUIREMENTS:
• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related engineering discipline (Master's degree or higher preferred)
• 15+ years of relevant aircraft development experience, including significant technical leadership responsibility on complex aerospace programs
• Demonstrated experience leading the development of an air vehicle or major aircraft system through multiple phases of the development lifecycle, ideally including design, build, integration, ground test, flight test, and production
• Broad technical understanding of aircraft development with demonstrated ability to make informed trades across multiple disciplines such as aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, flight controls, avionics, mechanical systems, and vehicle integration
• Proven ability to operate as a hands-on technical leader, diving deeply into engineering problems while maintaining system-level perspective
• Demonstrated record of making difficult technical decisions with incomplete information, identifying the highest-value risks, and driving teams toward solutions at speed
• Strong understanding of aircraft design principles, system integration, verification and validation, and the relationship between engineering decisions and aircraft-level performance
• Experience partnering closely with manufacturing and suppliers to transition complex aerospace hardware from development into production
• Demonstrated track record of taking ownership of complex development efforts and delivering hardware, navigating technical challenges and development cycles to achieve program milestones
• Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the program
• Demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and treating others with kindness and respect
