Shield AI's future engineering bench is built on campus. We are looking for a Sr. Staff Recruiter to own university recruiting end to end — the campus strategy, the full-cycle hiring of every intern, co-op, and new grad, the conversion of interns into full-time engineers, and the partnership with our internship program team that makes those conversions happen.
This is a single-threaded owner role. You will run the full university recruiting lifecycle — Plan, Attract, Engage, Assess & Hire, Convert, Retain, Optimize — across a standard slate of technical roles including Software Engineering (C++, autonomy), Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Integration & Test, and Mechanical Engineering, plus select business functions. You will operate with real autonomy on strategy and real accountability for outcomes: demand fulfilled on time, offer accept rates in a brutally competitive market, and a 75% intern-to-full-time conversion target.
You are equal parts strategist, closer, and program partner. You are comfortable presenting a school portfolio and ROI analysis to a VP in the morning, running a technical calibration with hiring managers at midday, and closing a rising senior with three competing offers that night.
What you'll do:
- Own Shield AI's university recruiting strategy end to end, including the target school portfolio, annual plan, calendar, and budget
- Lead demand collection with business leaders for interns, co-ops, and intern-to-FTE conversions, driving iHIRE approvals and req postings on schedule
- Build Shield AI's campus brand through technical storytelling, faculty and career center relationships, and engagement with robotics, AI, and diversity student organizations
- Represent Shield AI at career fairs, tech talks, and info sessions, and build early pipelines of high-potential candidates ahead of req approval
- Run full-cycle recruiting for all intern, co-op, and new grad roles across software, systems, electrical, integration and test, and mechanical engineering
- Maintain a structured, bias-reduced evaluation process and run intern interview training and calibration to keep the bar consistent across teams and sites
- Extend timely offers within the standard framework by role, location, and level, and partner with Compensation on salary and housing stipend benchmarking
- Own the accepted-offer-to-Day-1 experience to reduce reneges and strengthen onboarding readiness
- Partner with the intern program team on mentorship matching, project scoping, reviews, and intern events
- Own the intern conversion cycle, from identifying full-time-eligible interns through extending return-intern and full-time offers
- Report on demand fulfillment, offer and accept rates, conversion, diversity, and school ROI, and use those metrics to reshape each season's strategy
Required qualifications:
- 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with at least 3 years focused on university, early-career, or campus recruiting
- Demonstrated ownership of a campus strategy end to end — school selection, event planning, budget, and season execution — not just requisition execution
- Track record of high-volume technical hiring for engineering roles, and of closing candidates in a competitive market
- Experience partnering directly with senior business and engineering leaders on workforce planning and demand
- Strong data instincts: you build and use funnel metrics, conversion rates, and ROI analysis to make decisions and to influence leaders
- Proficiency with an ATS and sourcing tools; comfort building process, templates, and reporting from scratch
- Excellent written and verbal communication; you represent the company credibly to students, faculty, and executives
- Willingness to travel during peak campus season
- A demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience recruiting in AI, robotics, aerospace, or defense technology
- Experience running or supporting an internship or co-op program, including intern-to-full-time conversion processes
- Familiarity with U.S. defense-industry hiring considerations, including export control (ITAR/EAR) and work authorization requirements for early-career candidates
#LD
Skills Required
- 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, with at least 3 years focused on university, early-career, or campus recruiting
- Demonstrated ownership of a campus strategy end to end (school selection, event planning, budget, season execution)
- Track record of high-volume technical hiring for engineering roles and closing candidates in a competitive market
- Experience partnering directly with senior business and engineering leaders on workforce planning and demand
- Strong data instincts: build and use funnel metrics, conversion rates, and ROI analysis to inform decisions
- Proficiency with an ATS and sourcing tools; comfortable building process, templates, and reporting from scratch
- Excellent written and verbal communication; represent the company to students, faculty, and executives
- Willingness to travel during peak campus season
- Demonstrated record of being hardworking, trustworthy, holding self and others to high standards, and being kind
- Experience recruiting in AI, robotics, aerospace, or defense technology
- Experience running or supporting an internship or co-op program, including intern-to-full-time conversion processes
- Familiarity with U.S. defense-industry hiring considerations, including export control (ITAR/EAR) and work authorization requirements for early-career candidates
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage includes medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support, with company materials describing excellent coverage. Feedback suggests these offerings are comprehensive and consistently highlighted across official and third-party benefit lists.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full-time hires, with RSU structures and tools like Carta Tax intended to improve understanding and tax timing. Feedback suggests this broad-based ownership approach is a notable component of total rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Benefits include paid parental leave, fertility support, childcare benefits, family medical leave, and onsite resources such as a Mother's Room. Feedback suggests the family-oriented offerings are more expansive than basic coverage.
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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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
