What you'll do:
- Lead structural analysis efforts for UAV airframes, major substructures, and critical components within a program scope.
- Define and execute finite element modeling approaches, load cases, assumptions, and margin assessments.
- Perform and oversee static, modal, fatigue, vibration, and damage-tolerance analyses.
- Establish sound practices for hand calculations, model validation, and analysis-to-test correlation.
- Drive structural optimization across performance, weight, cost, and manufacturability targets.
- Support structural test strategy, including defining requirements, participating in execution, and correlating results to analysis.
- Review structural analysis deliverables, test reports, and technical documentation for design reviews.
- Mentor and technically guide structural analysts across varying experience levels.
- Partner cross-functionally with design, loads, aero, propulsion, and systems teams to balance structural requirements with overall aircraft performance goals.
- Contribute to evolving analysis methodologies and improving structural standards within the organization.
Required qualifications:
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
- 10+ years of experience in structural analysis, aircraft structures, or aerospace systems.
- Strong expertise with FEA tools (ANSYS, NASTRAN, HyperWorks, or similar).
- Advanced proficiency in hand calculations for strength, stability, fatigue, and damage tolerance.
- Significant experience with composite and lightweight aerospace structures.
- Experience supporting structural testing, model correlation, and flight test validation.
- Ability to lead complex technical workstreams and influence design decisions within a program.
- Strong communication skills and experience presenting analysis findings to engineering leadership.
- Ability to get a S//SAR level security clearance desired.
Preferred qualifications:
- Master’s or Ph.D. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering.
- Experience serving as a senior technical lead on aircraft or UAV structural programs.
- Hands-on involvement in flight test support and certification efforts.
- Experience contributing to internal analysis standards or best practices.
- Familiarity with CAD, PLM, and enterprise engineering toolchains.
Skills Required
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 10+ years of experience in structural analysis, aircraft structures, or aerospace systems
- Strong expertise with FEA tools (ANSYS, NASTRAN, HyperWorks, or similar)
- Advanced proficiency in hand calculations for strength, stability, fatigue, and damage tolerance
- Significant experience with composite and lightweight aerospace structures
- Experience supporting structural testing, model correlation, and flight test validation
- Ability to lead complex technical workstreams and influence design decisions within a program
- Strong communication skills and experience presenting analysis findings to engineering leadership
- Ability to get a S//SAR level security clearance
- Master's or Ph.D. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
- Experience serving as a senior technical lead on aircraft or UAV structural programs
- Hands-on involvement in flight test support and certification efforts
- Experience contributing to internal analysis standards or best practices
- Familiarity with CAD, PLM, and enterprise engineering toolchains
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 Teams
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
