Help build the technology behind the next generation of autonomous aircraft. As a Lead, Electrical Engineer, you will serve as a player-coach: leading the architecture, design, integration, and delivery of advanced electrical systems while directly managing and developing a small team of electrical engineers.You will remain deeply hands-on technically while setting direction for your team, driving execution across disciplines, and building the leadership experience needed to grow into broader engineering management responsibilities, including eventually leading full avionics organizations.
This role is intended for an experienced technical leader who wants to expand their impact through both hands-on engineering leadership and people management. Successful performance can lead to broader responsibility for multiple teams, larger avionics portfolio.
What you'll do:
- Lead the architecture, design, integration, and production release of electrical systems and subsystems for autonomous aircraft and support equipment.
- Own technical decisions across complex architectures involving FPGAs, power management, analog and digital circuitry, servos, microcontrollers, sensors, radios, and embedded systems.
- Remain hands-on with part selection, schematic capture, simulation, analysis, verification, debugging, design reviews, and production support.
- Lead and develop a team of electrical engineers through technical mentorship, coaching, performance feedback, and effective delegation.
- Establish technical direction, priorities, and development plans for your team in alignment with program and aircraft objectives.
- Partner closely with firmware, software, mechanical, manufacturing, supply chain, test, and systems engineering teams to deliver integrated products.
- Support the design and integration of embedded systems and sensors that enable aircraft autonomy and AI capabilities.
- Define technical requirements, product features, interfaces, and verification strategies.
- Own project execution for your team, including schedules, risks, dependencies, deliverables, and cross-functional communication.
- Lead and participate in architecture, design, integration, and production readiness reviews.
- Help develop automated test solutions and improve hardware development, verification, and production processes.
- Identify and implement improvements that increase engineering efficiency, product quality, aircraft reliability, and team effectiveness.
- Build the technical and organizational foundation required to scale the avionics engineering team over time.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or equivalent practical experience.
- 8+ years of industry experience in electrical engineering, including multiple product development cycles.
- Experience leading technically complex electrical or avionics designs from concept through production.
- Strong fundamentals in circuit design, embedded systems, hardware architecture, analysis, verification, and debugging.
- Experience delivering products across EE, ME, firmware, software, manufacturing, and systems engineering disciplines.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and develop engineers while maintaining hands-on technical ownership.
- Proven track record of shipping high-quality products, navigating ambiguity, resolving obstacles, and delivering against challenging schedules.
- Strong communication, collaboration, prioritization, and cross-functional leadership skills.
- Demonstrated ownership, initiative, sound technical judgment, and commitment to engineering excellence.
- Ability to obtain a Secret/SAR-level security clearance desired.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or equivalent work experience
- 8+ years of industry experience as an Electrical Engineer
- Strong technical fundamentals in electrical engineering
- Contributed to and led multiple product design cycles involving electrical, mechanical, and software engineering
- Demonstrated track record of shipping products through development cycles and delivering outcomes
- Experience with circuit and subsystem design including FPGAs, power management, analog and digital circuitry, servos, microcontrollers, sensors, and radios
- Experience with circuit part selection, schematic capture, simulation, analysis, verification, debugging, and release to production
- Experience integrating complex embedded systems and sensors enabling autonomy and AI
- Leadership and mentorship experience for teammates on project teams
- Ability to obtain a S//SAR level security clearance
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials highlight comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with mental-health support and an EAP. Third-party benefits summaries also portray health coverage as a strong component of the package.
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Retirement Support — Offerings include a 401(k) with employer matching, cited on the careers page and independent benefits directories. Multiple sources indicate a match exists, though exact formulas have varied over time and warrant confirmation.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Company communications describe equity for all full-time hires and stock benefits as part of total rewards. Independent listings also note company equity/RSUs as a standard element.
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.
