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Shield AI, a venture-backed defense-tech company, is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer for Structures and Vibration to lead structural engineering efforts on the V-BAT autonomous aircraft system. This is a technical leadership role focused on establishing and maintaining structural standards, owning system-level loads and requirements, and driving advanced analysis across static, dynamic, fatigue, and composite structures.
Key responsibilities include:
- Develop and maintain company-wide structural design criteria, factors of safety, analysis methods, material allowables, and joint design practices
- Own V-BAT system loads and define structural requirements for subsystems, components, and suppliers
- Lead static, stability, modal, dynamic, and fatigue analyses using hand calculations and FEA (Simcenter)
- Serve as the technical authority on composite structural analysis and bolted joint design
- Own vibration and shock environments; assess existing profiles and develop test requirements using measured flight data
- Define and improve vibration test requirements and processes from planning through verification and model-to-test correlation
- Lead program-wide weight optimization reviews and analyze new designs for efficiency
- Review structural analyses, test reports, and design review content; present findings to engineering leadership and customers
- Mentor engineers in FEA and structural fundamentals to build team capability
- Provide structural guidance on design changes and production issues
Shield AI's products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies, with operations worldwide across the U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
REQUIREMENTS:
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline
- 12+ years of structural analysis experience on aircraft, UAS, or comparable complex systems, including service as a structural lead or technical authority
- Experience creating structural design criteria, analysis methods, or engineering standards
- Expert knowledge of structural mechanics and hand calculations (strength, stability, fatigue, structural dynamics)
- Expertise with FEA tools, preferably Siemens Simcenter (Nastran or Femap), or equivalents (ANSYS, Abaqus)
- Significant experience analyzing composite aircraft structures and defining composite design requirements
- Expert-level knowledge of bolted joint analysis and design
- Hands-on experience with vibration and shock testing, including test planning, instrumentation, and data review; working knowledge of MIL-STD-810
- Proven track record of mentoring engineers
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
PREFERRED:
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
- Lead structural engineer experience on Group 2–5 UAS, rotorcraft, or VTOL aircraft
- Experience deriving vibration environments from flight test data (PSD analysis, fatigue damage spectrum, test tailoring)
- Modal testing and FEA model correlation experience
- Leadership of structural weight reduction programs
- Experience developing composite allowables (e.g., CMH-17) and knowledge of composite manufacturing
- Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516, RTCA DO-160, and aircraft structural certification
- Experience in startup or high-growth defense environments
