Engineering Manager, Aircraft ECS & Thermal Systems

Shield; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Shield AI seeks an experienced engineering leader to manage Environmental Control Systems & Thermal on the X‑BAT program. You will build and mentor a team responsible for ECS, aircraft thermal management, and related fluid hardware, guiding architecture and flight-readiness through hands-on leadership.

You will balance technical depth with people development, set priorities for Group 5 work, review designs, and coordinate with structures, propulsion, avionics, and test teams to deliver hardware

Qualifications

• Active Secret or higher clearance required for US Citizens.
• 8+ years in aerospace environmental control systems, thermal engineering, fluid systems, or comparable aircraft mechanical systems development.
• B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience directly managing and developing individual contributors, including setting expectations and providing growth opportunities.
• Strong fundamentals in thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and aircraft thermal management.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of individual contributors for ECS and thermal systems on the X‑BAT program and group 5 initiatives.
• Set priorities, staffing, and execution cadence; remove blockers and manage dependencies across programs.
• Guide ECS and thermal architecture, reviews, and design decisions across cooling, airflow, ducting, heat exchangers, and related hardware.
• Define requirements, risk management, verification plans, and flight‑readiness through hardware delivery.
• Coordinate interfaces with structures, propulsion, avionics, EWIS, payloads, and test teams; ensure test planning and data integrity.

Skills

People leadership

Technical judgment

Clear communication

Education

B.S./M.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering

Tools

FloEFD

STAR‑CCM+

Amesim

Flowmaster

Job description

Shield AI seeks an experienced engineering leader to manage Environmental Control Systems & Thermal on the X‑BAT program. You will build and mentor a team responsible for ECS, aircraft thermal management, and related fluid hardware, guiding architecture and flight-readiness through hands-on leadership.

You will balance technical depth with people development, set priorities for Group 5 work, review designs, and coordinate with structures, propulsion, avionics, and test teams to deliver hardware