Shield AI’s future engineering bench is built on campus. We’re looking for a Senior Recruiter to own university recruiting end to end—from campus strategy and full-cycle hiring for interns, co-ops, and new graduates to intern-to-full-time conversion, in close partnership with our internship program team.
You will lead the full university recruiting lifecycle—Plan, Attract, Engage, Assess & Hire, Convert, Retain, and Optimize—across Software Engineering (C++ and autonomy), Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Integration & Test, Mechanical Engineering, and select business functions. You will have real autonomy to shape strategy and clear accountability for outcomes: meeting hiring demand on time, securing offer acceptances in a fiercely competitive market, and converting interns into full-time engineers.
You are equal parts strategist, closer, and program partner. You are as comfortable presenting a school portfolio and ROI analysis to a VP in the morning as you are leading a technical calibration with hiring managers at midday or closing a rising senior with three competing offers that evening.
What You'll Do:
- Own Shield AI's university recruiting strategy end to end, including the target school portfolio, annual plan, calendar, and budget for your business
- Lead demand collection with business leaders for interns, co-ops, and intern-to-FTE conversions, driving iHIRE approvals and req postings on schedule for your business
- 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 for Aircraft
- 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
Skills Required
- 5+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience
- At least 3 years focused on university, early-career, or campus recruiting
- Ownership of campus strategy, including school selection, event planning, budget, and season execution
- High-volume technical hiring experience for engineering roles
- Track record of closing candidates in a competitive market
- Experience partnering directly with senior business and engineering leaders on workforce planning and demand
- Ability to build and use funnel metrics, conversion rates, and ROI analysis
- Proficiency with an ATS and sourcing tools
- Ability to build recruiting processes, templates, and reporting from scratch
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Willingness to travel during peak campus season
- Record of strong work ethic, trustworthiness, high standards, and kindness
- Experience recruiting in AI, robotics, aerospace, or defense technology
- Experience running or supporting an internship or co-op program
- Experience with intern-to-full-time conversion processes
- Familiarity with U.S. defense-industry hiring considerations, including ITAR, EAR, and work authorization requirements
What the Team is Saying
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.
Gallery
%203.jpg)
Shield Teams
.jpg)
Shield Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
