In this role, you are the single technical authority for test execution—responsible for determining test readiness, directing test conduct, managing risk, and ensuring data-driven decisions throughout development and flight test operations. You will lead cross-functional teams across engineering, safety, and program management, aligning stakeholders around clear objectives, disciplined execution, and continuous learning.
What You'll Do:
- Act as Test Director for system-level integration and flight test campaigns of Hivemind Mission Autonomy on UAS and external platforms
- Own test readiness decisions, including entry/exit criteria for lab, simulation, ground, and flight test phases
- Plan, direct, and execute fly–fix–fly test campaigns, ensuring rapid iteration while maintaining disciplined configuration control and safety
- Define and enforce test strategy, including system-level verification and validation, test phasing, and prioritization of objectives
- Direct cross-functional test execution, coordinating across various engineering disciplines and test operators.
- Determine test infrastructure requirements, including SIL, HIL, simulation environments, flight test assets, and automated test pipelines
- Approve and oversee test procedures, test cards, and execution plans, serving as the final authority during test conduct
- Define performance metrics and success criteria, ensuring test data is actionable and traceable to requirements and mission outcomes
- Lead flight test risk assessments, hazard analyses, and mitigation planning; enforce safety-of-flight discipline during operations
- Serve as primary test interface to internal leadership, customers, and external stakeholders, providing clear reporting on test progress, results, and risks
- Establish test standards, SOPs, and best practices aligned with industry and DoD DT&E/OT&E expectations
- Document test results, anomalies, corrective actions, and lessons learned, driving continuous improvement across autonomy flight test efforts
- Support travel to test sites, customer events, and integration activities as required
- Perform other duties as assigned
Required Qualifications:
- B.S. degree in a STEM discipline (Aerospace Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field)
- 7+ years of experience in system integration and test, including SIL, HIL, simulation, and flight test environments
- Demonstrated experience leading test execution, including authority over test conduct, readiness, and risk decisions
- Strong background working cross-functionally with systems engineering, software, hardware, safety, and program management teams
- Highly organized and methodical, with the ability to manage complex, fast-paced test campaigns
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including briefing technical status to leadership and customers
- Demonstrated integrity, accountability, and commitment to high standards while fostering a collaborative, respectful team environment
Preferred Qualifications:
- Working knowledge of DoD DT&E and OT&E processes and documentation expectations
- Direct experience with UAS, autonomy, or robotic flight test operations
- Prior role as Test Director, Test Conductor, or Lead Flight Test Engineer
- Experience operating within DoD software and hardware laboratories or government flight test ranges
- Familiarity with safety-of-flight processes, hazard analysis, and configuration control in flight test environments
#LE
Skills Required
- Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM discipline, such as aerospace engineering, software engineering, computer engineering, or a related field
- 7 or more years of experience in system integration and testing, including SIL, HIL, simulation, and flight-test environments
- Experience leading test execution with authority over test conduct, readiness, and risk decisions
- Experience working cross-functionally with systems engineering, software, hardware, safety, and program management teams
- Strong organization and methodical execution in complex, fast-paced test campaigns
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including briefing technical status to leadership and customers
- Integrity, accountability, high standards, and collaborative teamwork
- Working knowledge of DoD DT&E and OT&E processes and documentation expectations
- Direct experience with UAS, autonomy, or robotic flight-test operations
- Prior experience as a Test Director, Test Conductor, or Lead Flight Test Engineer
- Experience in DoD software and hardware laboratories or government flight-test ranges
- Familiarity with safety-of-flight processes, hazard analysis, and configuration control in flight-test environments
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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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
