As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will take full technical ownership of flight control actuation system design for a Group 5 UAV fighter aircraft. You will work from first principles to define requirements, resolve actuator and integration trades, and drive qualified flight-control actuation hardware from design through production support. This position requires a balance of technical rigor, rapid decision-making, and hands-on engineering to efficiently transition concepts into operational capability. The ideal candidate is comfortable solving complex problems, taking ownership, working within an accelerated aircraft development environment, and is motivated by getting meaningful capability into the hands of operators quickly.
What you'll do:
- System Ownership: Define, allocate, and own the FCAS requirements and verification traceability matrix.
- Actuator Performance: Design and analyze control surface actuation systems, including sizing, dynamic response, bandwidth, redundancy, and failure modes.
- Control-Law Integration: Drive the control law-actuator interface with Flight Controls and Vehicle Management Systems, including actuator dynamics modeling and control surface authority requirements.
- Power and Thermal Integration: Drive actuator power source architecture and load analysis with EPS and hydraulic systems leads, and resolve actuator heat-generation and local thermal-load interfaces with thermal management.
- Structural Integration: Drive coordination of control surface hinge moments and actuator reaction loads with structures.
- Qualification and Hardware Delivery: Define and execute FCAS qualification test plans per MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810, using test results to mature qualified flight-control actuation hardware.
- Program Execution: Lead FCAS design-maturity and qualification-status reviews at SRR, PDR, and CDR.
Required qualifications:
- Experience: 8 to 15 years in flight control actuation system design on fixed-wing aircraft.
- Education: B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace 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.
- Dynamic Performance: Demonstrated experience with actuator dynamic performance analysis, including bandwidth, response, stability margins, failure mode analysis, and redundancy analysis.
- Integration: Experience coordinating with flight controls and VMS engineers on actuator-control law integration.
- Standards and Reviews: Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810 as applied to flight control actuation, 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.
- Unmanned or autonomous flight control experience, including the redundancy philosophy differences from manned aircraft.
- Experience with EMA or EHA control surface actuators.
- Secret clearance eligible.
Skills Required
- 8 to 15 years of experience designing flight control actuation systems on fixed-wing aircraft
- B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline
- Experience sourcing COTS or custom aerospace components, managing suppliers, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups
- Ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines
- Experience analyzing actuator dynamic performance, bandwidth, response, stability margins, failure modes, and redundancy
- Experience coordinating actuator and control-law integration with flight controls and vehicle management systems engineers
- Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810 for flight control actuation
- Experience supporting SRR, PDR, and CDR on a DoD or fighter-class aircraft program
- Prior fighter or fighter-adjacent program experience
- Unmanned or autonomous flight control experience
- Experience with EMA or EHA control surface actuators
- Secret clearance eligibility
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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Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
