As we scale rapidly across our Aircraft division, we’re looking for a highly driven Senior Technical Sourcer who lives and breathes talent discovery - someone who can take a complex, highly specialized needs and translate it into a precision sourcing strategy. You’ll be the go-to expert for market mapping, proactive candidate generation, and pipeline cultivation across our Aircraft team.
This isn’t just a “find resumes” role - it’s about building intelligence, relationships, and repeatable systems that fuel our engineering hiring engine.
What you'll do:
- Own the top of funnel: Partner closely with recruiters and hiring leaders to define target profiles and build deep, data-informed sourcing strategies across multiple regions and functions.
- Map the market: Develop comprehensive talent landscapes by company, skillset, and geography; identify hidden talent pools and competitor org structures to inform recruiting strategy.
- Generate and engage: Use advanced Boolean, tooling, and creative sourcing channels (LinkedIn Recruiter, ClearanceJobs, HireEZ, Github, forums, niche aerospace networks, etc.) to identify and engage exceptional candidates.
- Build pipelines proactively: Maintain warm relationships with high-value candidates to enable just-in-time hiring across priority programs.
- Be the sourcing SME: Coach recruiters and hiring managers on market insights, talent availability, and candidate engagement best practices.
- Partner for impact: Work cross-functionally with TA ops, branding, and university teams to optimize outbound messaging and candidate experience.
- Track and iterate: Use data and storytelling to measure outreach effectiveness and improve conversion at every stage.
Who we're looking for:
- You have 8+ years of proven cross-regional sourcing experience, ideally in aerospace, defense, autonomy, or other complex hardware/software industries (in-house or executive search environment)
- Proven track record in market mapping, competitive intelligence, and candidate generation for highly specialized technical roles.
- Deep expertise in Boolean search, LinkedIn Recruiter, HireEZ, and other sourcing platforms.
- Experience building and maintaining long-term relationships with passive, cleared, or niche engineering talent.
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills - you know how to engage technical talent authentically.
- Highly organized, data-driven, and able to operate autonomously in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
- Comfortable working in ambiguous and ever evolving environment with shifting priorities
- You have proven experience sourcing or recruiting within and building a network within high growth and innovative companies for roles including; electrical, mechanical, aerospace, avionics and RF engineering
Skills Required
- 8+ years of cross-regional sourcing experience, ideally in aerospace, defense, autonomy, or complex hardware/software industries
- Proven track record in market mapping, competitive intelligence, and candidate generation for specialized technical roles
- Deep expertise in Boolean search and sourcing platforms (LinkedIn Recruiter, HireEZ, ClearanceJobs, GitHub, niche forums/networks)
- Experience building and maintaining long-term relationships with passive, cleared, or niche engineering talent
- Proven experience sourcing for roles such as electrical, mechanical, aerospace, avionics, and RF engineering
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills for engaging technical talent
- Highly organized, data-driven, able to operate autonomously in a fast-paced environment
- Comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-changing environments with shifting priorities
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 Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
