Shield AI is seeking a Senior Technical Recruiter to join our Aircraft Talent Acquisition team, supporting the growth of our engineering and operations organizations.
In this role, you’ll partner closely with hiring managers and business leaders to attract, engage, and hire exceptional talent across a variety of technical disciplines, including hardware engineering, software engineering, and operations.
We’re looking for a recruiter who thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, takes ownership of their work, and knows how to balance strategic partnership with hands-on recruiting execution. The ideal candidate is adaptable, resourceful, data-driven, and comfortable navigating ambiguity while delivering results.
What You’ll Do:
- Own full-cycle recruiting for technical and operational roles across Shield AI’s Aircraft organization, from initial intake through offer acceptance.
- Partner closely with engineering and operations leaders to understand hiring needs, establish priorities, and develop recruiting strategies aligned with business objectives.
- Build and execute creative sourcing strategies to identify and engage exceptional talent across highly specialized technical disciplines.
- Develop strong partnerships with hiring managers, providing market insights, candidate calibration, and recommendations to improve hiring outcomes.
- Manage multiple requisitions and shifting priorities while maintaining a high level of candidate experience and operational excellence.
- Leverage recruiting data and funnel metrics to identify bottlenecks, improve conversion rates, and drive accountability throughout the hiring process.
- Collaborate with sourcers, recruiting coordinators, HR business partners, and other cross-functional stakeholders to ensure an efficient and consistent hiring process.
- Drive interview processes forward by proactively managing candidate pipelines, applicant queues, hiring manager feedback, and interview timelines.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to hiring managers on talent availability, compensation expectations, interview processes, and competitive market dynamics.
- Continuously identify opportunities to improve recruiting processes, tools, and team effectiveness.
What We’re Looking For:
- 4+ years of recruiting experience, ideally with exposure to recruiting for hardware engineering, software engineering, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, or other highly technical disciplines.
- Demonstrated ability to independently manage complex searches and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong sourcing capabilities, including experience identifying and engaging passive candidates in competitive talent markets.
- Experience partnering with senior hiring managers and technical leaders, with the confidence to influence hiring decisions and challenge assumptions when necessary.
- Strong understanding of recruiting metrics, pipeline management, and data-driven decision-making.
- Excellent communication, organizational, and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to adapt quickly to changing priorities, business needs, and organizational structures.
- Experience working with applicant tracking systems, sourcing platforms, and recruiting analytics tools.
- A proactive, solutions-oriented mindset with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
Skills Required
- 2-6 years of recruiting experience
- Experience supporting software engineering, technical, or complex searches
- Experience managing candidate pipelines across multiple open roles
- Strong sourcing, candidate engagement, or recruiter screening experience
- Strong communication and relationship-building skills
- Strong organization, follow-through, and attention to detail
- Ability to prioritize competing needs and maintain urgency
- Experience using ATS systems, sourcing platforms, and recruiting tools
- Comfort receiving feedback, asking questions, and learning from senior recruiting partners
- Team-oriented mindset and willingness to support hiring outcomes
- Exposure to technical or engineering recruiting
- Interest in developing deeper expertise in software engineering and technical talent markets
What the Team is Saying
Shield Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage are described as strong and affordable, and offerings include a mental-health assistance program. Overall impressions point to good plan value for many employees.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with employer matching is highlighted positively, with accounts describing a company match and favorable experiences. Current match formulas and vesting are noted as worth confirming.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Full-time hires receive equity (often via RSUs), positioned as a meaningful component of total rewards. A double-trigger structure is noted as potentially deferring taxes until a liquidity event.
Shield Insights
What We Do
At Shield you won't wait years to see your work reach the field. You'll build hardware and software that operates in the real world right now, in the hands of the people who depend on it. Hivemind, our AI pilot, has been flying since 2018. It has flown more than 30 platforms, including an F-16, and it now sits under a U.S. Air Force production contract for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. When you write code or shape a system here, you contribute to technology with a proven flight record and a clear production future. V-BAT flies intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions with an operational record that stretches from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific. It delivers eyes where they matter most, in the most demanding conditions on earth. The teams behind it watch their work get tested where the stakes are real. X-BAT takes its first flight this year. It's an AI-piloted fighter that needs no runway, built to operate where traditional aircraft can't. Join now and you help shape a program at its earliest, most formative stage. That's the kind of ground-floor work that defines a career. Do the most impactful work of your life, on problems that matter. Autonomy at this level asks a lot of you. You'll take on problems in perception, planning, and control that few teams anywhere are equipped to solve. You'll work across disciplines, from aerospace and robotics to machine learning and systems engineering, alongside people who hold themselves to an exacting standard and expect the same from you. Our mission is clear: protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. That purpose runs through every decision, every design review, and every deployment. It's why the work here carries a weight you can feel. Ready to join our mission? Explore our open roles and find where you fit.
Why Work With Us
Founded in 2015 by a former Navy SEAL, Shield builds AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft. Veterans aren't an afterthought here, they're at every level. It's why the work carries weight: AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft flying real missions, from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, protecting service members and civilians.
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
