The HMS UAS Operations Technician serves as the primary operator and technical lead for Group 1/2 UAS test assets, ensuring aircraft, payloads, ground control systems, and supporting equipment are mission-ready and operated in accordance with established procedures, safety requirements, and operational standards.
This position works closely with software, systems, and flight operations teams to support the integration, validation, and operational assessment of autonomy capabilities in laboratory, ground, and flight environments.
What you'll do:
- Operate flight test platforms in support of daily fly-fix-fly verification activities
- Serve as a primary operator for Group 1/2 UAS platforms during developmental and operational testing.
- Configure, inspect, maintain, and troubleshoot aircraft, payloads, autopilot systems, and ground control stations.
- Coordinate aircraft readiness, pre-flight inspections, launch and recovery operations, and post-flight maintenance activities.
- Execute operational test procedures and mission plans while ensuring compliance with established safety and operational requirements.
- Support development, refinement, and enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOPs), checklists, and operational best practices.
- Ensure compliance with FAA regulations, airspace requirements, range procedures, and company flight operations standards.
- Assist in flight planning, airspace coordination, mission scheduling, and operational risk assessments.
Required qualifications:
- 5+ years of experience operating and maintaining Group 1/2 UAS platforms in test, military, commercial, or operational environments.
- Strong knowledge of COTS UAS hardware, autopilot systems, ground control stations, communications systems, and payload integration.
- Experience developing, implementing, and executing standard operating procedures (SOPs), checklists, and operational processes.
- Working knowledge of FAA regulations, National Airspace System (NAS) operations, airspace coordination, and flight authorization requirements.
- Experience conducting flight operations in dynamic and complex test environments.
- Strong organizational, communication, and mission planning skills.
- Ability to coordinate effectively with software, systems, safety, and flight operations personnel.
- FAA Part 107 certification or equivalent UAS operational experience.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a SECRET clearance; U.S. citizenship required.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting autonomy, AI-enabled systems, or developmental flight test programs, particularly with multi-aircraft or distributed UAS operations.
- Fabrication experience with design, build of mechanical and electrical systems
- Familiarity with standard control and autopilot elements such as QGC, Mission Planner, Ardupilot, Px4
- Military UAS operations or test experience.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience operating and maintaining Group 1/2 UAS platforms in test, military, commercial, or operational environments.
- Strong knowledge of COTS UAS hardware, autopilot systems, ground control stations, communications systems, and payload integration.
- Experience developing, implementing, and executing standard operating procedures (SOPs), checklists, and operational processes.
- Working knowledge of FAA regulations, National Airspace System (NAS) operations, airspace coordination, and flight authorization requirements.
- Experience conducting flight operations in dynamic and complex test environments.
- Strong organizational, communication, and mission planning skills.
- Ability to coordinate effectively with software, systems, safety, and flight operations personnel.
- FAA Part 107 certification or equivalent UAS operational experience.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a SECRET clearance; U.S. citizenship required.
- Experience supporting autonomy, AI-enabled systems, or developmental flight test programs, multi-aircraft or distributed UAS operations.
- Fabrication experience with design and build of mechanical and electrical systems.
- Familiarity with QGC, Mission Planner, ArduPilot, PX4.
- Military UAS operations or test experience.
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
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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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