This Engineering Technician will support XBAT prototype ground testing and flight testing. This hands-on role will work closely with Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Test Engineering, and Design Engineering to verify hardware quality, identify and investigate issues, and ensure prototype configurations and test articles meet defined requirements.
What you'll do:
- Perform in-process, final, pre-test, and post-test inspections of XBAT prototype hardware.
- Inspect mechanical, electrical, structural, composite, and electromechanical assemblies using appropriate measurement equipment.
- Verify hardware configuration, workmanship, dimensions, torque, installation, and traceability against engineering requirements.
- Support ground and flight test readiness by verifying required inspections and documentation are complete.
- Inspect and document hardware condition following testing, including damage, failures, and abnormal conditions.
- Collect objective evidence such as measurements, photographs, and inspection results to support engineering investigations.
- Identify, document, and contain nonconformances; support MRB, root-cause investigations, and corrective actions.
- Work directly with Quality, Manufacturing, Test, and Design Engineering to resolve prototype quality issues.
- Support development and improvement of inspection plans, checklists, acceptance criteria, and quality processes.
- Maintain accurate inspection, configuration, and quality records for serialized prototype hardware.
- Identify recurring issues and provide feedback to engineering and manufacturing teams to improve product and process quality.
Required qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, manufacturing, aviation, or a related technical field.
- Experience supporting prototype development or flight testing.
- Experience with hands-on inspection, testing, manufacturing, or troubleshooting of complex aerospace hardware.
- Ability to read engineering drawings, specifications, and work instructions.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with UAVs, aircraft, flight hardware, or aerospace structures.
- Experience with GD&T, composites, electrical systems, or electromechanical assemblies.
- Experience with nonconformance, MRB, RCCA, or failure investigation.
- Familiarity with AS9100.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, manufacturing, aviation, or a related technical field
- Experience supporting prototype development or flight testing
- Hands-on inspection, testing, manufacturing, or troubleshooting experience with complex aerospace hardware
- Ability to read engineering drawings, specifications, and work instructions
- Experience with UAVs, aircraft, flight hardware, or aerospace structures
- Experience with GD&T, composites, electrical systems, or electromechanical assemblies
- Experience with nonconformance, MRB, RCCA, or failure investigation
- Familiarity with AS9100
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as excellent, with dental/vision and mental‑health support, and ancillary protections like life and disability appearing in benefit summaries. The breadth and perceived affordability of coverage are highlighted as a standout component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is featured alongside enhanced maternity benefits, fertility and childcare support, and onsite resources such as a Mother’s Room. These elements are positioned as competitive and above the minimal baseline for the company’s stage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full‑time hires, with RSUs, double‑trigger tax timing, and tools to model scenarios (e.g., through Carta Tax). Communications also reference a transition from options to RSUs, reinforcing access and maturity of ownership programs.
Shield AI Insights
What We Do
At Shield AI, 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 AI 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.
