Join a high-impact quality engineering team driving reliability, validation, and execution excellence across next-generation autonomous systems. This role partners across engineering, test, manufacturing, and program leadership to ensure quality objectives are embedded throughout the product lifecycle. You will lead cross-functional quality initiatives by managing validation efforts, driving issue resolution, tracking technical risk, and improving engineering execution through data-driven program management.
We are seeking a Quality Engineering Technical Program Manager (TPM) with experience leading complex hardware or aerospace quality programs, including validation planning, root cause analysis, reliability tracking, and cross-functional execution.
What you'll do:
- Lead cross-functional quality engineering programs spanning validation, integration, manufacturing readiness, and field reliability
- Drive issue triage, root cause investigations, corrective actions, and closure tracking for system-level failures
- Develop and manage quality plans, schedules, metrics, and risk tracking across engineering teams
- Coordinate verification and validation activities across hardware, software, manufacturing, and test organizations
- Partner with engineering leadership to improve release readiness, defect reduction, and development processes
- Analyze quality and reliability trends to identify systemic issues and improve product performance
Required qualifications:
- 3+ years of experience in technical program management, quality engineering, systems engineering, or validation leadership in complex hardware or aerospace environments
- Strong understanding of root cause analysis, corrective actions, and reliability tracking
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional programs across engineering, manufacturing, and test organizations
- Experience managing technical risk, program dependencies, and execution tradeoffs in fast-paced development programs
- Strong analytical, communication, and organizational skills with the ability to drive alignment and accountability across teams
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting aerospace, defense, robotics, or autonomous systems programs
- Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, or regulated engineering environments
- Experience with reliability testing, systems integration, or manufacturing quality
- Experience using data and automation tools such as Python, SQL, Jira, Power BI, or Tableau to improve quality visibility and execution
Skills Required
- 3+ years of experience in technical program management, quality engineering, systems engineering, or validation leadership in complex hardware or aerospace environments
- Strong understanding of root cause analysis, corrective actions, and reliability tracking
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional programs across engineering, manufacturing, and test organizations
- Experience managing technical risk, program dependencies, and execution tradeoffs in fast-paced development programs
- Strong analytical, communication, and organizational skills with the ability to drive alignment and accountability across teams
- Experience supporting aerospace, defense, robotics, or autonomous systems programs
- Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, or regulated engineering environments
- Experience with reliability testing, systems integration, or manufacturing quality
- Experience using data and automation tools such as Python, SQL, Jira, Power BI, or Tableau to improve quality visibility and execution
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.
