UAS Demo & Flight Test Field Engineer

Shield AI; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 84,000 - 127,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a Demo & Test Operations professional in San Diego to coordinate and execute flight test campaigns, demos, and customer events for Group 1/2 UAS platforms. You will work with test teams to align mission requirements with autonomy capabilities, ensuring readiness of aircraft, payloads, and ground control systems.

Responsibilities include developing mission scenarios, operational testing, SOP enforcement, and collaboration with software, systems, and flight-test teams to drive

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience operating and maintaining Group 1/2 UAS platforms with military units.
• Strong knowledge of COTS UAS hardware, autopilot systems, ground control stations, and payload integration.
• Ability to engage customer UAS and ground operators on mission requirements.
• Understanding of CONOPS and customer mission-essential tasks.
• Experience developing SOPs, checklists, and operational processes.
• Working knowledge of FAA regulations, NAS operations, airspace coordination and flight authorization.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a SECRET clearance; U.S. citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate demo flight operations, equipment staging, transportation, logistics, site support and field execution for flight test campaigns.
• Operate flight test platforms in daily fly-fix-fly verification activities.
• Serve as primary operator for Group 1/2 UAS platforms during testing and demonstrations.
• Capture field observations and customer feedback; convert into actionable recommendations for engineering and teams.
• Configure, inspect, maintain, and troubleshoot aircraft, payloads, autopilots and ground control stations.
• Coordinate aircraft readiness, pre-flight inspections, launch/recovery, and post-flight maintenance.
• Ensure compliance with FAA regulations, airspace requirements and company flight ops standards.

Skills

Group 1/2 UAS operations

UAS hardware & autopilot

FAA regulations knowledge

Mission planning & logistics

Customer engagement

Security clearance (SECRET)

Communication skills

Cross-team coordination

QGC / Mission Planner / ArduPilot / PX

Tools

QGC

Mission Planner

ArduPilot

PX4

Job description

Shield AI is seeking a Demo & Test Operations professional in San Diego to coordinate and execute flight test campaigns, demos, and customer events for Group 1/2 UAS platforms. You will work with test teams to align mission requirements with autonomy capabilities, ensuring readiness of aircraft, payloads, and ground control systems.

Responsibilities include developing mission scenarios, operational testing, SOP enforcement, and collaboration with software, systems, and flight-test teams to drive