Air Vehicle Lead, Chief Engineer

Shield; California; On-site; USD 212,000 - 318,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI in California seeks an Air Vehicle Lead to guide a next‑generation autonomous aircraft program. You’ll own the vehicle architecture, drive cross‑discipline technical decisions, and ensure design integrity from concept through flight test.

This hands‑on leadership role requires deep expertise across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, avionics, and manufacturing. You will mentor engineers, manage risk, and push for robust, producible, and mission‑ready solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering, Master’s preferred.
• 15+ years in aircraft development with technical leadership.
• Experience taking an air vehicle through design to production.
• Ability to trade across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, controls, avionics.
• Hands-on leader able to dive into engineering problems while maintaining system view.
• Proven record of making high-value technical decisions under uncertainty.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the required security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own the Air Vehicle architecture, performance, integration, and design integrity throughout development.
• Provide direction across aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, avionics, controls, and manufacturing.
• Lead trades on performance, weight, range, cost, reliability, and schedule.
• Drive design execution from requirements to hardware release and flight test.
• Stay hands-on in reviews, problem solving, testing, and critical design decisions.
• Identify and close technical risks with appropriate engineering rigor.
• Enable rapid development with prototypes, ground and flight testing, and data.
• Ensure interfaces are understood and interfaces with production are producible and robust.
• Collaborate with manufacturing and suppliers to transition to production.
• Set ownership culture, mentor engineers, and raise program capability.

Skills

Leadership

Hands-on engineering

System-level thinking

Risk management

Cross-disciplinary coordination

Education

Bachelors in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Aircraft development

Production readiness

Job description

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai . Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn , X , Instagram , and YouTube .

Job Description

Are you a passionate and innovative aerospace engineering leader looking to develop next-generation autonomous aircraft? Are you eager to make a positive difference in the world and work alongside mission-driven, values-focused teammates? Shield AI is just the place for you.

Air Vehicle Lead for a new aircraft program

you will serve as the senior technical leader responsible for the design, development, integration, and maturation of the air vehicle. You will own the technical integrity of the aircraft and lead the multidisciplinary engineering effort required to take the vehicle from requirements and architecture through detailed design, build, ground test, flight test, and production.

This is a highly technical, hands‑on leadership role. You will work across aerodynamics, flight sciences, structures, mechanical systems, propulsion, avionics, electrical systems, flight controls, manufacturing, and test to ensure the aircraft performs as an integrated system. You will be expected to make difficult technical trades, challenge assumptions, manage risk, and drive the team toward simple, robust solutions at speed.

What you’ll do:

• 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 rather than individual components.
• 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. Establish clear technical priorities and rapidly resolve issues that threaten program execution.
• 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 closely with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations to ensure the aircraft can transition from development into repeatable production. Drive designs that balance performance with producibility, cost, reliability, and maintainability.
• Lead Suppliers and Partners: Provide technical leadership for critical suppliers and externally developed systems, ensuring supplier designs and hardware 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 technical leaders while raising the overall technical capability of the program.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a 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 simultaneously 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
• A demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and treating others with kindness and respect.

$212,320 - $318,480 a year

Full‑time regular employee offer package:

Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part‑time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.