Senior Staff Lab Manager (R5090)

Shield; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a Senior Staff Lab Manager to lead the design, development, operation, and long-term strategy of its engineering laboratories. You will guide hardware and software teams to rapidly develop, test, and validate complex systems, while driving lab architecture and infrastructure modernization.

The role requires deep technical expertise and strong operational leadership, with responsibility for asset management, system integration, and a security-conscious lab environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field.
• 10+ years in engineering labs or technical infrastructure.
• 5+ years of technical leadership or people management.
• Experience designing and building labs from concept through deployment.
• US Citizenship required; Active Secret clearance.
• Experience with lab infrastructure lifecycle, maintenance, calibration, upgrades, and modernization.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, operation and long-term strategy of engineering laboratories.
• Oversee lab strategy and infrastructure, asset management, and engineering support.
• Mentor engineers and technicians; lead a team.
• Drive modernization of lab facilities and integration of hardware/software systems.

Skills

Lab leadership

Engineering lab design

HIL/SIL systems

Networking

Asset management

Team management

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree (EE/ME/CS/Systems/CS)

Tools

Ethernet networking

VLANs

Automation tooling

Infrastructure-as-code

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-BATaircraft, 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:

We are seeking an experienced Senior Staff Lab Manager to lead the design, development, operation, and long-term strategy of our engineering laboratories. This is a highly technical leadership role responsible for creating world-class lab environments that enable hardware and software engineering teams to rapidly develop, integrate, test, and validate complex systems.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong operational leadership, driving lab architecture, infrastructure modernization, asset management, and engineering support while leading a team of engineers and technicians.

What you’ll do:

• Lab Strategy & Infrastructure

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.

• 10+ years of experience supporting complex engineering laboratories or technical infrastructure.

• 5+ years of technical leadership or people management experience.

• Demonstrated experience designing and building engineering labs from concept through deployment.

• Strong understanding of laboratory infrastructure, including:

• Experience managing equipment lifecycle, maintenance, calibration, upgrades, and modernization.

• Experience supporting multidisciplinary engineering organizations.

• Laboratory infrastructure design and architecture

• System-level engineering and integration

• Networking (Ethernet, VLANs, managed switches, routing)

• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-loop (SIL) systems

• Asset management and inventory systems

• US Citizenship required due to security clearance requirements.
  Active Secret clearance.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience supporting robotics, aerospace, defense, automotive, or autonomous systems development.

• Experience with secure laboratory environments and classified or regulated development environments.

• Knowledge of systems engineering processes and system architecture.

• Experience implementing laboratory automation and infrastructure-as-code practices.

• Familiarity with cloud-connected engineering workflows and hybrid infrastructure.

• Programming and scripting experience:

• Active Top Secret clearance or eligible to achieve

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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 toequal 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.