What you'll do:
- Support engine, hover, static, and integrated propulsion test campaigns for X-BAT including planning, execution, and post-test analysis.
- Advise on propulsion system readiness and define test objectives, test point development, build up approach, success criteria, and instrumentation requirements.
- Develop and review test procedures, hazard analyses, run cards, and safety documentation for high-energy test operations.
- Provide technical oversight during engine runs, hover tests, transition testing, and propulsion-autonomy integration events.
- Serve as a propulsion subject-matter expert during Test Readiness Reviews (TRRs), Test Hazard Analyses (THAs), and Operational Risk Management (ORM) assessments
- Support root-cause investigations related to propulsion performance, engine controls, thermal behavior, vibration, and integration issues.
- Partner with Autonomy and Avionics teams to evaluate propulsion-related interactions such as thrust control logic, response lags, fail-safes, and emergency behaviors.
- Collaborate with Instrumentation Engineering to ensure data quality, test post process analysis, reporting, timing, and fidelity across propulsion channels.
- Support field deployments, remote test sites, and intensive test cycles as required to meet program schedules.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, 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.
Preferred qualifications:
- 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.
- Prior involvement in developmental or experimental flight test programs.
- Experience with compressed-air starts, engine-health monitoring systems, or high-temperature structural analysis.
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 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.
