Shield AI is seeking a highly experienced Flight Test Engineer to lead ground and flight test planning and execution for X-BAT, the world’s first autonomous VTOL jet aircraft. In this role, you will shape the flight test strategy, direct complex developmental test campaigns, and provide technical leadership across the program to ensure safe and rapid development of a next-generation autonomous aircraft.
The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in developmental flight testing, mission control room operations, and aircraft test envelope expansion. You will work closely with engineering, flight operations, autonomy, systems integration, instrumentation, manufacturing, and safety teams to define test objectives, assess risk, execute test missions, and analyze the data required to evaluate aircraft performance and advance the flight test program.
This is a high-impact role for a technical leader who thrives in fast-paced, experimental environments and who wants to help define the future of autonomous aviation.
What you'll do:
- Lead ground and flight test campaigns for X-BAT, including test planning, execution, post-test analysis, and progressive flight envelope expansion.
- Assess aircraft and system readiness and define test objectives, test points, build-up approaches, success criteria, and instrumentation requirements.
- Develop and review test plans, procedures, flight test cards, hazard analyses, risk assessments, and safety documentation for developmental ground and flight test operations.
- Lead and coordinate pre-flight, flight, and post-flight activities, including aircraft configuration, test briefings, mission control room operations, telemetry monitoring, and go/no-go recommendations.
- Provide technical leadership during hover, transition, and forward-flight testing, including integrated evaluations of aircraft systems, flight controls, and autonomy.
- Serve as a flight test subject-matter expert during Test Readiness Reviews (TRRs), Test Hazard Analyses (THAs), and Operational Risk Management (ORM) assessments.
- Partner with engineering, Autonomy, Avionics, and flight operations teams to integrate and evaluate aircraft systems, software, communications and data links, ground control systems, and emergency behaviors.
- Collaborate with Instrumentation Engineering to define data acquisition and telemetry requirements and ensure data quality, time synchronization, and fidelity across aircraft and ground systems.
- Analyze ground and flight test data to assess aircraft performance, validate requirements, investigate anomalies, and inform corrective actions and subsequent test planning.
- Develop and maintain ground and flight operating limitations, support aircraft configuration control and system readiness, and coordinate with maintenance teams to resolve test-related issues.
- Document test results, anomalies, lessons learned, and recommendations in clear technical reports, and improve flight test processes, tools, and data workflows.
- Support test range coordination, field deployments, remote test sites, and intensive test cycles as required to meet program objectives.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM Degree)
- 5-10 years of experience with developmental and/or operational ground and flight test, unmanned/manned aircraft systems, aircraft integration, or aerospace systems engineering
- Strong understanding of aircraft systems, flight dynamics, avionics, telemetry, sensors, or control systems
- Proven ability to write and execute structured test plans, procedures, and reports
- Strong troubleshooting skills in field and/or lab environments
- Excellent communication skills and ability to work across engineering and operations teams
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 80% for candidates not based in the Wichita Metro Area, including travel to test sites, ranges, and other field locations
- Overtime and weekend coverage as required
- Active Secret Security Clearance
Preferred qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience with developmental and/or operational ground and flight test, unmanned aircraft systems, aircraft integration, or aerospace systems engineering
- Experience in Group 4-5 UAS and/or fighter type capability or similar weapons systems
- Familiarity with FAA, DoW, and test range flight operations
- Experience with autonomy, navigation, mission planning, and Command-and-Control (C2) systems
- Hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance, avionics integration, payload integration, and ground support equipment
- Experience with telemetry systems, flight and data logs, sensor data, datalinks, and RF systems
- Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate or crewed aviation experience
- Proven Mission Control Room experience using Integrated Analysis & Data System (IADS) or similar development FTI display system
- Experience leading or supporting developmental flight test campaigns from design through planning and execution to include reporting
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical Engineering, or related technical discipline
- 8+ years of experience in propulsion testing for jet engines, VTOL systems, unmanned aircraft, or developmental flight test programs
- Demonstrated expertise executing and analyzing engine tests, hover/transition events, and integrated propulsion-airframe testing
- Strong understanding of engine controls, FADEC systems, thrust measurement, thermal analysis, and vibration/loads behavior
- Experience writing and reviewing high-energy test procedures, readiness documentation, and hazard analyses
- Proven ability to operate safely and decisively in fast-paced test environments
- Excellent communication skills and demonstrated performance in multidisciplinary engineering organizations
- Ability to travel and support extended field test deployments
- Master's degree or higher in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering
- Experience with tail-sitter, VTOL, or thrust-vectoring propulsion systems
- Background in autonomy-powered aircraft, propulsion-system modeling, or propulsion-flight-control integration
- Familiarity with IRIG, PCM, instrumentation requirements, and high-rate telemetry data
- Experience supporting complex investigations or leading propulsion technical review boards
- Experience with compressed-air starts, engine-health monitoring systems, or high-temperature structural analysis
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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Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
