Staff Flight Test & Integration Lead, Autonomous Platforms

Shield; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Shield AI, a defense-tech innovator, seeks a Hivemind Solutions Staff Integration & Flight Test Engineer (ACP Programs) to drive integration and flight test of Hivemind AI Pilot capabilities on Group 5 UAS/ACP platforms.

You’ll translate objectives into executable plans across test environments, manage risk, and coordinate with OEMs, government sites, and internal teams to deliver rapid, safe autonomy capabilities at scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience with a Bachelor’s degree or 6+ years with a Master’s.
• Experience planning, conducting, and evaluating flight tests in defense aviation.
• Strong safety-of-flight principles, risk management, and disciplined test execution.
• Experience with multiple test environments (SIL, HIL, simulation, flight).
• Cross-functional collaboration across software, hardware, avionics, and programs.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute detailed integration and flight test plans across simulation, SIL, HIL, ground, and flight environments.
• Coordinate readiness of simulation environments, labs, aircraft, and test assets.
• Apply aviation knowledge to develop safe, efficient integration and flight test plans.
• Define test objectives, metrics, and success criteria with traceability to requirements.
• Lead aircraft integration and flight test activities including mission planning and data analysis.
• Coordinate with OEMs, government ranges, and flight ops to meet readiness criteria.
• Coordinate cross-functional execution across software, hardware, systems engineering, safety, and leadership.
• Evaluate results, identify issues, and recommend corrective actions to mature capability.

Skills

Flight test planning

Cross-functional coordination

Systems integration

Python scripting

Safety-of-flight & risk management

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Master's degree in engineering

Tools

Git

Jira/Azure DevOps

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Shield AI, a defense-tech innovator, seeks a Hivemind Solutions Staff Integration & Flight Test Engineer (ACP Programs) to drive integration and flight test of Hivemind AI Pilot capabilities on Group 5 UAS/ACP platforms.

You’ll translate objectives into executable plans across test environments, manage risk, and coordinate with OEMs, government sites, and internal teams to deliver rapid, safe autonomy capabilities at scale.