Staff Engineer, Flight Controls - X-BAT (R4813)

Shield AI; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm in Dallas, Texas, seeks an experienced Flight Control Engineer to design and implement robust flight control systems for the XBAT aircraft. You will collaborate across propulsion and autonomy teams, focusing on high-fidelity simulations and mentoring junior engineers. This role requires over 6 years in flight controls with a strong emphasis on simulation and verification. The position offers a competitive salary ranging from 180,000 to 280,000 USD a year.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in flight controls on real flight vehicles.
• Strong background in aircraft flight dynamics.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement flight control laws and supporting logic.
• Build and mature high-fidelity simulation environments.
• Execute verification activities, including linear analysis and HIL validation.

Skills

Flight control systems

Problem-solving skills

Mentoring

C++

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

Tools

6DOF simulation environment

CI/CD pipelines

Linux-based development workflows

Job description

Company Overview

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture‑backed deep‑tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V‑BAT and X‑BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia‑Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai.

Job Description

In this role, you will contribute to the flight control system for XBAT, with responsibility for delivering stable, predictable, and operationally robust performance across all phases of flight, including vertical takeoff, hover, transition out‑bound, wing‑borne flight, transition in‑bound, and precision recovery.

What you’ll do

• Design and implement flight control laws and supporting logic across multiple flight regimes.
• Build and mature high‑fidelity 6DOF simulation environments used for control development and ensure accurate pre‑flight performance predictions.
• Execute verification activities, including linear analysis, Monte Carlo campaigns, disturbance/sensitivity/degraded operation testing, and HIL validation.
• Diagnose and resolve simulation‑to‑test mismatches, including unidentified dynamics and modeling gaps.
• Support flight test operations and contribute to rapid iteration between flights.
• Work closely with propulsion, aero, actuation, sensors, state estimation, and autonomy teams to ensure accurate integrated system performance in the 6DOF simulation environment.
• Mentor, teach, and up‑skill younger engineers.

Required qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in flight controls / GNC on real flight vehicles, with demonstrated contributions from design through test.
• Experience performing one or more of the following technical flight control assignments:
  • Vehicle Modeling and Simulation:
    • Demonstrated experience implementing time‑accurate mathematical models of the vehicle aerodynamics, mass properties, fuel system, propulsion system, sensors, actuators into a 6DOF simulation environment.
  • Control Law Design:
    • Demonstrated experience designing inner and outer loop control laws for fixed‑wing aircraft using classical or modern control techniques.
  • Control Allocation:
    • Demonstrated experience designing control allocation algorithms for over‑actuated systems handling actuator saturation, rate limits, failures and degradation.
  • Guidance and Autonomy Integration:
    • Demonstrated experience designing and testing real‑time trajectory generation algorithms.
  • Verification and Validation:
    • Demonstrated experience executing linear, nonlinear, and Monte Carlo Analyses in a 6DOF simulation environment.
    • Demonstrated experience executing sensitivity studies, worst‑case disturbance analysis, and/or failure detection and accommodation studies validating control robustness against requirements.
    • Demonstrated experience characterizing aircraft flying qualities against tailored MIL‑HDBK‑516 Section 6 requirements within a high‑fidelity 6DOF Simulation framework.
    • Demonstrated experience in generating flight control and simulation data artifacts for Airworthiness Certification (Simulation Description Document, Flying Qualities Report).
  • Post‑Flight Analysis:
    • Demonstrated experience analyzing flight data, comparing predicted vs actual behavior, performing system identification and model refinement tasks, and implementing control design or simulation model updates.
• Strong background in aircraft flight dynamics and 6DOF simulation.
• Strong problem‑solving skills and the ability to mentor and up‑skill junior engineers.
• Proficiency in C++, MATLAB/Simulink, and/or Python.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Preferred qualifications

• Autonomous systems or missile/UAV GNC background.
• Familiarity with:
  • Sensor and air data systems.
  • CI/CD pipelines and modern DevSecOps practices.
  • Experience integrating NPSS propulsion models (transient and steady state) into a 6DOF simulation environment.
  • Experience with HIL or integrated simulation/test environments and Linux‑based development workflows (Git, etc.).
  • Experience operating in rapid development environments with tight iteration loops between simulation and test.

Compensation

180000 - 280000 USD a year

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.