What you'll do:
- Maintain real-time configuration status of the V-BAT fleet, including all software, hardware, payload, and subsystem revisions.
- Review engineering releases, change orders, and revision documents to determine the operational impact of new configurations.
- Work closely with the Engineering Department to interpret technical changes and distinguish between revisions that are optional versus those requiring mandatory retrofit.
- Assist in assessing safety, capability, and sustainment implications of configuration differences across fielded aircraft and ground systems.
- Develop and manage retrofit plans for required upgrades, ensuring schedules, materials, and manpower are aligned.
- Coordinate with supply chain and fleet support to ensure required retrofit kits, replacement parts, and documentation are available and properly controlled.
- Communicate configuration impacts, timelines, and dependencies to internal customers and leadership.
- Track completion status of retrofits and updates across the global fleet and maintain accountability for all deployed hardware.
- Ensure all configuration changes align with approved engineering releases, airworthiness requirements, and internal quality controls.
- Support continuous improvement of configuration management processes, tools, and documentation.
Required qualifications:
- Experience in project management, product lifecycle management, or fleet sustainment—preferably in unmanned systems, aerospace, or defense.
- Strong understanding of configuration management principles, including revision control, baselining, and change impact analysis.
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, change notices, and technical documentation.
- Proven ability to coordinate cross-functional efforts involving Engineering, Logistics, and Operations.
- Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple configuration states simultaneously.
- Excellent communication and decision-making skills.
- Familiarity with retrofit planning, fielded system support, or maintenance operations is a plus.
Preferred qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree and PMP certification.
- Military experience with aviation, UAS operations or systems.
- Background with engineering change processes within a defense or regulated environment.
- Proficiency with configuration management tools or Product Lifecycle Management systems.
Skills Required
- Experience in project management, product lifecycle management, or fleet sustainment
- Strong understanding of configuration management principles including revision control, baselining, and change impact analysis
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, change notices, and technical documentation
- Proven ability to coordinate cross-functional efforts involving Engineering, Logistics, and Operations
- Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple configuration states simultaneously
- Excellent communication and decision-making skills
- Familiarity with retrofit planning, fielded system support, or maintenance operations
- Experience in unmanned systems, aerospace, or defense
- Bachelor's degree
- PMP certification
- Military experience with aviation, UAS operations or systems
- Background with engineering change processes within a defense or regulated environment
- Proficiency with configuration management tools or Product Lifecycle Management systems
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
