We are seeking an experienced Senior Staff Lab Manager to lead the design, development, operation, and long-term strategy of our engineering laboratories. This is a highly technical leadership role responsible for creating world-class lab environments that enable hardware and software engineering teams to rapidly develop, integrate, test, and validate complex systems.
The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong operational leadership, driving lab architecture, infrastructure modernization, asset management, and engineering support while leading a team of engineers and technicians.
What you'll do:
- Own the overall vision, architecture, and roadmap for engineering laboratory infrastructure.
- Design, build, and commission new laboratory spaces to support evolving engineering programs.
- Define standards for laboratory layout, power distribution, networking, cooling, safety, security, and scalability.
- Develop long-term modernization plans to ensure laboratory capabilities remain aligned with engineering needs.
- Evaluate and implement new technologies, tools, and automation to improve laboratory efficiency and reliability.
- Own day-to-day laboratory operations across multiple engineering disciplines.
- Develop scheduling processes that maximize lab utilization while minimizing conflicts and downtime.
- Plan and coordinate preventative maintenance, calibration, repairs, and equipment lifecycle management.
- Manage laboratory uptime, availability, and operational readiness.
- Establish operational metrics, KPIs, and reporting for lab performance.
- Support complex hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), integration, and validation environments.
- Develop laboratory standards for networking, compute infrastructure, storage, instrumentation, and data acquisition.
- Partner with engineering teams to architect robust development and test environments.
- Ensure laboratories support rapid system integration and reproducible testing.
- Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of lab engineers, infrastructure engineers, and technicians.
- Recruit, mentor, and grow high-performing technical staff.
- Prioritize work across multiple concurrent engineering programs.
- Establish standard operating procedures, documentation, and best practices.
- Foster a culture of safety, ownership, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
- Work closely with Hardware, Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Systems, Manufacturing, and Test Engineering organizations.
- Partner with IT, Facilities, Security, and EH&S teams to deliver reliable and secure laboratory environments.
- Manage vendor relationships for laboratory equipment, infrastructure, and service providers.
Lab Strategy & Infrastructure
Lab Operations
Engineering Systems & Integration
Leadership
Collaboration
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of experience supporting complex engineering laboratories or technical infrastructure.
- 5+ years of technical leadership or people management experience.
- Demonstrated experience designing and building engineering labs from concept through deployment.
- Strong understanding of laboratory infrastructure, including:
- Power distribution
- Network architecture
- Server and storage systems
- Instrumentation
- Environmental controls
- Safety systems
- Experience managing equipment lifecycle, maintenance, calibration, upgrades, and modernization.
- Experience supporting multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
- Laboratory infrastructure design and architecture
- System-level engineering and integration
- Networking (Ethernet, VLANs, managed switches, routing)
- Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-loop (SIL) systems
- Asset management and inventory systems
- US Citizenship required due to security clearance requirements.
Active Secret clearance.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting robotics, aerospace, defense, automotive, or autonomous systems development.
- Experience with secure laboratory environments and classified or regulated development environments.
- Knowledge of systems engineering processes and system architecture.
- Experience implementing laboratory automation and infrastructure-as-code practices.
- Familiarity with cloud-connected engineering workflows and hybrid infrastructure.
- Programming and scripting experience:
- Python, MATLAB, C/C++, etc.
- Active Top Secret clearance or eligible to achieve
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Computer, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline
- 10+ years experience supporting complex engineering laboratories or technical infrastructure
- 5+ years of technical leadership or people management experience
- Demonstrated experience designing and building engineering labs from concept through deployment
- Strong understanding of laboratory infrastructure including power distribution, network architecture, server and storage systems, instrumentation, environmental controls, safety systems
- Experience managing equipment lifecycle, preventive maintenance, calibration, upgrades, and modernization
- Experience supporting multidisciplinary engineering organizations
- Laboratory infrastructure design and architecture
- System-level engineering and integration
- Networking experience (Ethernet, VLANs, managed switches, routing)
- Experience with Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-loop (SIL) systems
- Experience with asset management and inventory systems
- Experience supporting robotics, aerospace, defense, automotive, or autonomous systems development
- Experience with secure laboratory environments and classified or regulated development environments
- Knowledge of systems engineering processes and system architecture
- Experience implementing laboratory automation and infrastructure-as-code practices
- Familiarity with cloud-connected engineering workflows and hybrid infrastructure
- Programming and scripting experience (Python, MATLAB, C/C++)
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage includes medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support, with company materials describing excellent coverage. Feedback suggests these offerings are comprehensive and consistently highlighted across official and third-party benefit lists.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full-time hires, with RSU structures and tools like Carta Tax intended to improve understanding and tax timing. Feedback suggests this broad-based ownership approach is a notable component of total rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Benefits include paid parental leave, fertility support, childcare benefits, family medical leave, and onsite resources such as a Mother's Room. Feedback suggests the family-oriented offerings are more expansive than basic coverage.
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.
