The Receiving & Incoming Inspection Lead oversees daily material receiving and incoming inspection activities, with direct supervisory responsibility for receiving associates and incoming inspection personnel. This role ensures purchased materials are accurately received, inspected against applicable requirements, and released to inventory or production in a timely manner.
The Lead combines hands-on operational support with team leadership, workload prioritization, employee development, and continuous improvement. The role partners closely with Supply Chain, Supplier Quality, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Inventory Control to resolve discrepancies and prevent nonconforming material from reaching production.
What You'll Do
- Directly supervise receiving associates and incoming inspectors, including daily assignments, scheduling, training, coaching, and performance evaluations.
- Establish clear expectations for safety, quality, productivity, accuracy, and professional conduct.
- Balance staffing and workload across receiving and inspection to support production priorities.
- Develop cross-training plans and maintain training records to ensure personnel are qualified for assigned tasks.
- Address performance issues promptly and support hiring, onboarding, and employee development.
- Oversee receipt, identification, counting, and verification of purchased materials against purchase orders, packing slips, and required documentation.
- Ensure accurate and timely transactions in the ERP system, including part numbers, quantities, revisions, and lot or serial information where required.
- Resolve shortages, overages, shipping damage, incorrect parts, and documentation discrepancies with Procurement and suppliers.
- Maintain material identification, traceability, segregation, and handling controls throughout the receiving process.
- Coordinate movement of accepted material to inventory, kitting, or production.
- Execute incoming inspection activities according to approved inspection plans, drawings, specifications, purchase order requirements, and quality procedures.
- Ensure required supplier documentation is present and reviewed, including certificates of conformance, material certifications, test reports, and first article documentation when applicable.
- Verify inspectors use appropriate inspection methods and calibrated measurement equipment.
- Ensure suspected or confirmed nonconforming material is identified, documented, and quarantined pending authorized disposition.
- Partner with Supplier Quality and Engineering on inspection questions, supplier defects, containment, and material review activities.
- Ensure material is released only after required acceptance criteria and approvals are satisfied.
- Lead daily reviews of receiving and inspection queues, aging material, shortages, and production-critical receipts.
- Escalate quality concerns and material constraints with clear ownership and required resolution dates.
- Improve receiving-to-stock cycle time without compromising inspection requirements or traceability.
- Standardize work instructions, visual controls, and transaction practices.
- Support supplier corrective actions by providing accurate defect records and inspection evidence.
- Maintain an organized, safe, and audit-ready work area.
Team Leadership
Receiving Operations
Incoming Inspection
Cross-Functional Execution & Improvement
What You'll Bring
- Experience in receiving, incoming inspection, inventory control, or manufacturing quality.
- Prior experience directly supervising hourly or technical personnel, including coaching, work assignment, and performance management.
- Ability to interpret purchase orders, engineering drawings, specifications, and inspection instructions.
- Experience using ERP systems for receiving, inventory transactions, and material status tracking.
- Working knowledge of inspection tools such as calipers, micrometers, gauges, and other applicable measurement equipment.
- Strong attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and cross-functional communication.
- Ability to prioritize competing demands in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
- Experience in aerospace, defense, robotics, or other complex hardware manufacturing.
- Familiarity with AS9100/ISO 9001 quality environments and AS9102 first article documentation.
- Experience with electronic assemblies, machined parts, composites, or electromechanical hardware.
- Familiarity with ESD controls, foreign object debris prevention, shelf-life controls, and lot/serial traceability.
- Experience supporting nonconformance management, material review boards, and supplier corrective actions.
Required Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
Skills Required
- Experience in receiving, incoming inspection, inventory control, or manufacturing quality.
- Prior direct supervision of hourly or technical personnel, including coaching, work assignment, and performance management.
- Ability to interpret purchase orders, engineering drawings, specifications, and inspection instructions.
- Experience using ERP systems for receiving, inventory transactions, and material status tracking.
- Working knowledge of calipers, micrometers, gauges, and other applicable measurement equipment.
- Strong attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and cross-functional communication.
- Ability to prioritize competing demands in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
- Experience in aerospace, defense, robotics, or other complex hardware manufacturing.
- Familiarity with AS9100 and ISO 9001 quality environments and AS9102 first article documentation.
- Experience with electronic assemblies, machined parts, composites, or electromechanical hardware.
- Familiarity with ESD controls, foreign object debris prevention, shelf-life controls, and lot or serial traceability.
- Experience supporting nonconformance management, material review boards, and supplier corrective actions.
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials highlight comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with mental-health support and an EAP. Third-party benefits summaries also portray health coverage as a strong component of the package.
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Retirement Support — Offerings include a 401(k) with employer matching, cited on the careers page and independent benefits directories. Multiple sources indicate a match exists, though exact formulas have varied over time and warrant confirmation.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Company communications describe equity for all full-time hires and stock benefits as part of total rewards. Independent listings also note company equity/RSUs as a standard element.
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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Shield AI Teams
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
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