What you'll do:
- Actuation System Ownership: Lead the architecture, requirements definition, and detailed design of actuation systems across bay doors and other airframe mechanisms.
- Actuator and Mechanism Design: Own actuator selection and sizing, sequencing, redundancy management, failure mode analysis, and interfaces with the mechanisms they actuate.
- Vehicle Mechanism Integration: Drive integration of actuation systems with control surfaces, weapons bay doors, and other vehicle mechanisms, including timing, load, sealing, and structural interface requirements.
- Power and Thermal Integration: Own actuator power architecture and load-analysis interfaces with EPS, and heat-generation and heat-rejection interfaces with thermal management.
- Requirements and Verification: Define, allocate, and own verification traceability for actuation system requirements with FCAS, EPS, thermal management, structures, and propulsion IPTs.
- Targeted Technical Decisions: Perform focused technology assessments when needed to resolve specific actuation design and integration risks.
- Qualification and Hardware Delivery: Define and execute qualification test plans per MIL-STD-810, using results to mature the design into production-ready hardware and support MIL-HDBK-516 Airworthiness Certification.
- Program Execution: Lead design-maturity and qualification-status reviews at SRR, PDR, and CDR.
Required qualifications:
- Clearance required: US Citizens Only & Must have an Active Secret or higher clearance.
- Experience: 8 to 15 years in aircraft actuation systems design, with hands-on depth in electric actuation, including EMA or EHA, or centralized hydraulics and working knowledge of the other.
- Education: B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Hardware and Supplier Execution: Proven track record sourcing COTS/custom aerospace components, driving suppliers to schedule, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups.
- Autonomy: Demonstrated ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks without oversight, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines.
- Actuation Design Fundamentals: Demonstrated depth in actuator sizing, power and thermal interfaces, FMEA, redundancy management, and mechanical mechanism integration.
- Systems Integration: Demonstrated experience leading multi-disciplinary actuation design and integration efforts with electrical power, thermal management, structures, and adjacent mechanical systems stakeholders.
- Standards and Reviews: Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810 as applied to actuation and mechanical systems, and experience supporting SRR, PDR, and CDR on a DoD or fighter-class aircraft program.
Preferred qualifications:
- Prior fighter or fighter-adjacent program experience, manned or unmanned.
- Experience developing electric actuation architectures for aircraft control surfaces or other mechanisms.
- Weapons bay mechanism or store separation-adjacent mechanical systems experience.
Skills Required
- U.S. citizenship and an active Secret or higher security clearance
- 8 to 15 years of experience in aircraft actuation systems design
- Hands-on experience with electric actuation, including EMA or EHA, or centralized hydraulics, plus working knowledge of the other
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline
- Experience sourcing COTS and custom aerospace components, managing suppliers to schedule, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups
- Ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines
- Depth in actuator sizing, power and thermal interfaces, FMEA, redundancy management, and mechanical mechanism integration
- Experience leading multidisciplinary actuation design and integration with electrical power, thermal management, structures, and adjacent mechanical systems
- Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810 for actuation and mechanical systems
- Experience supporting SRR, PDR, and CDR on a DoD or fighter-class aircraft program
- Prior fighter or fighter-adjacent program experience, manned or unmanned
- Experience developing electric actuation architectures for aircraft control surfaces or other mechanisms
- Weapons bay mechanism or store separation-adjacent mechanical systems experience
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as excellent, with dental/vision and mental‑health support, and ancillary protections like life and disability appearing in benefit summaries. The breadth and perceived affordability of coverage are highlighted as a standout component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is featured alongside enhanced maternity benefits, fertility and childcare support, and onsite resources such as a Mother’s Room. These elements are positioned as competitive and above the minimal baseline for the company’s stage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full‑time hires, with RSUs, double‑trigger tax timing, and tools to model scenarios (e.g., through Carta Tax). Communications also reference a transition from options to RSUs, reinforcing access and maturity of ownership programs.
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.
