The Principal Quality Engineer serves as the senior technical quality authority for a complex aerospace development program. This role is responsible for establishing and driving quality engineering strategies that ensure products are designed, developed, tested, and transitioned to production with the highest levels of safety, reliability, manufacturability, and mission effectiveness.
The Principal Quality Engineer partners closely with Design Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Flight Test, and Program Management to identify technical risks, drive root cause investigations, improve product reliability, and ensure quality is designed into the product from inception through production readiness.
As the most senior individual contributor within the quality organization, this role provides technical leadership across development programs and serves as a key advisor to engineering and executive leadership on quality and reliability matters.
What you'll do:
- Serve as the lead quality engineering representative on a major aerospace development program.
- Establish quality engineering strategies and methodologies throughout the product development lifecycle.
- Ensure quality requirements are incorporated into system architecture, design, verification, validation, and production planning activities.
- Drive quality integration within cross-functional engineering teams.
- Provide technical leadership for complex quality and reliability challenges.
- Participate in system requirements reviews, design reviews, and technical readiness reviews.
- Assess product designs for quality, manufacturability, inspectability, maintainability, and reliability.
- Identify and mitigate technical risks associated with design maturity and product performance.
- Evaluate engineering changes and configuration modifications for quality impact.
- Champion Design for Quality (DFQ), Design for Manufacturability (DFM), and Design for Reliability (DFR) principles.
- Lead investigations of the program's most complex failures and quality escapes.
- Apply advanced root cause methodologies to identify systemic causes of defects and failures.
- Facilitate cross-functional corrective action teams.
- Drive closure and effectiveness verification of corrective actions.
- Mentor engineering teams in structured problem-solving techniques.
- Develop reliability growth strategies and quality metrics for development programs.
- Support implementation and execution of FRACAS processes.
- Analyze failure trends, test results, field data, and operational performance.
- Identify emerging risks before they impact program objectives.
- Recommend design, process, or operational improvements to improve product robustness.
- Develop quality engineering approaches for laboratory, environmental, ground, and flight testing.
- Ensure test anomalies, failures, and nonconformances are properly evaluated and resolved.
- Support qualification and certification efforts.
- Evaluate test readiness and production readiness criteria.
- Ensure lessons learned are captured and incorporated into future designs.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering to develop scalable production processes.
- Support development of inspection strategies, acceptance criteria, and process controls.
- Evaluate manufacturing capability and production risks during product maturation.
- Ensure development lessons learned are translated into production controls.
- Support transition from prototype builds to low-rate and full-rate production.
- Support supplier quality planning for critical components and technologies.
- Evaluate supplier quality risks associated with development hardware.
- Participate in supplier investigations and corrective actions when required.
- Drive quality improvements across the supply base supporting the program.
- Serve as a mentor and technical coach to Quality Engineers and cross-functional engineering teams.
- Develop quality engineering standards, tools, and best practices.
- Influence program decisions through technical expertise and data-driven analysis.
- Lead special projects involving advanced quality engineering methodologies.
- Act as a trusted advisor to engineering and executive leadership.
Development Quality Leadership
Design Quality & Product Development
Failure Analysis & Root Cause Investigation
Reliability & Risk Management
Verification, Validation & Test Quality
Manufacturing & Production Readiness
Supplier & Component Quality
Technical Leadership
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical discipline.
- 12+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, aviation, space, or similarly complex engineered products.
- Extensive experience supporting new product development programs.
- Deep understanding of quality engineering principles and development lifecycles.
- Demonstrated success leading complex technical investigations and root cause analyses.
- Experience with reliability engineering, failure analysis, and risk management.
- Strong understanding of aerospace manufacturing processes and production transitions.
- Working knowledge of AS9100 quality systems and aerospace regulatory requirements.
- Excellent communication and technical leadership skills.
Preferred qualifications:
- Advanced degree in Engineering, Systems Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or related field.
- Experience with UAVs, autonomous systems, aircraft development, or defense technologies.
- Experience supporting flight test programs and developmental testing.
- Expertise in FRACAS, FMEA, reliability growth, and statistical analysis techniques.
- ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) or equivalent certification.
- Experience supporting military or government aerospace programs.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical discipline.
- 12+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, aviation, space, or similarly complex engineered products.
- Extensive experience supporting new product development programs.
- Deep understanding of quality engineering principles and development lifecycles.
- Demonstrated success leading complex technical investigations and root cause analyses.
- Experience with reliability engineering, failure analysis, and risk management.
- Strong understanding of aerospace manufacturing processes and production transitions.
- Working knowledge of AS9100 quality systems and aerospace regulatory requirements.
- Excellent communication and technical leadership skills.
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
Healthcare Strength — Company materials describe excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage alongside a mental‑health EAP. Site perks such as an onsite gym in DC and a gym discount in San Diego support a health‑focused offering.
-
Retirement Support — Careers materials highlight a 401(k) with company match as part of the standard package. A Total Rewards overview emphasizes retirement features within a broader, transparent compensation view.
-
Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Compensation for in‑demand technical and senior go‑to‑market roles is described as competitive, with visible engineering ranges and top‑end packages. This points to meaningful upside tied to role, level, and scarce skills.
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.
Gallery
%203.jpg)
Shield AI Teams
.jpg)
Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
