Senior Fuel Systems Engineer for Autonomous Aircraft

Shield; Washington; On-site; USD 146,000 - 219,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI in Washington state seeks a Staff Fuel System Engineer to own the aircraft fuel system from requirements through deployment. You will lead design, integration, testing, and field support with a focus on reliability and performance.

The role demands deep thermofluid knowledge and hands-on collaboration with propulsion, controls, airframe, and suppliers to deliver safe, high‑performance systems for next‑gen autonomous aircraft.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• 7+ years of experience in aerospace fuel systems, fluid systems, propulsion, or related aircraft system development, with demonstrated ownership of complex aerospace hardware.
• Strong understanding of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and compressible and incompressible flow.
• Strong understanding of aerospace fuel system design, including pressure losses, pump performance, venting, vapor pressure, cavitation, transient flow behavior, and thermal effects.
• Hands-on experience with fluid system hardware integration, instrumentation, testing, flight support, and technical failure investigations.
• Strong proficiency in Python or similar tools for engineering analysis, data reduction, and model correlation.
• Demonstrated ability to independently drive ambiguous technical problems to measurable results in a fast-paced development environment.
• U.S. Citizenship and active security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the Responsible Engineer for the aircraft fuel system, owning requirements, architecture, interfaces, hardware, and technical decisions from concept through operational deployment.
• Design, size, and integrate fuel tanks, pumps, valves, plumbing, venting and pressurization systems, filtration, level sensing, and associated fuel system hardware.
• Analyze fuel system performance across the aircraft operating envelope, including pressure and flow requirements, transient engine demand, elevated-G maneuvering, tank depletion, slosh, vapor pressure, cavitation, vapor ingestion, and thermal effects.
• Lead technical design reviews, supplier engagements, and hardware procurement while ensuring the fuel system meets performance, mass, thermal, reliability, safety, and mission requirements.
• Plan and execute component, subsystem, and vehicle-level testing, including instrumentation, procedures, data acquisition, performance validation, and flight readiness.
• Analyze ground and flight data to validate system performance, quantify margin, identify anomalies, and drive hardware or operational improvements.
• Lead failure investigations and root cause efforts using analysis, inspection, testing, and data to develop effective corrective actions.
• Work hands-on with design engineers, technicians, propulsion, controls, airframe, manufacturing, supply chain, test, and flight teams to build, integrate, troubleshoot, and iterate flight hardware.

Skills

Aerospace Fuel Systems

Thermodynamics

Python

Technical leadership

Root Cause Analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

GFSSP

REFPROP

CFD

ANSYS

FEA

Job description

Shield AI in Washington state seeks a Staff Fuel System Engineer to own the aircraft fuel system from requirements through deployment. You will lead design, integration, testing, and field support with a focus on reliability and performance.

The role demands deep thermofluid knowledge and hands-on collaboration with propulsion, controls, airframe, and suppliers to deliver safe, high‑performance systems for next‑gen autonomous aircraft.