Shield AI develops AI-powered autonomy software and aircraft systems that protect service members and civilians by enabling intelligent operations in contested environments. As part of the X-BAT program, you will help develop and validate next-generation autonomous aircraft and mission-critical hardware that must perform reliably in demanding operational conditions.
Job Description:Shield AI is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to lead the X-BAT Hardware Test Software team. This team builds and sustains automated production test stands used to functionally test avionics and aircraft electrical assemblies.
You will lead software engineers developing test frameworks, station-control software, equipment interfaces, data collection, and automated pass/fail evaluation. Our systems interact with custom fixtures, instrumentation, embedded devices, FPGA-enabled hardware, and avionics units under test.
The ideal candidate has managed engineering teams and has personally built or led the development of automated hardware test systems used in production, manufacturing, qualification, or other high-consequence environments. You know what robust test automation looks like: safe operation, repeatable results, useful diagnostics, configuration control, traceability, maintainability, and a practical path from prototype to sustained production use.
What You'll do:
Lead, mentor, and grow a team of software engineers supporting X-BAT avionics production test.
Own the technical roadmap and execution for automated test stands, reusable test frameworks, station software, and test-data systems.
Build scalable Python-based software for test sequencing, instrument and fixture control, unit-under-test communication, measurement collection, pass/fail evaluation, and reporting.
Guide software architecture, code quality, configuration management, CI/CD, release processes, documentation, and operational support.
Partner closely with electrical engineers to translate avionics interfaces, functional requirements, and failure modes into automated test coverage.
Partner with mechanical engineers to ensure fixtures, cabling, connectors, serviceability, safety, and operator workflows support reliable production testing.
Work with FPGA and embedded-software teams to configure, communicate with, and validate FPGA-enabled avionics hardware.
Improve test coverage, station uptime, throughput, failure triage, test repeatability, and traceability.
Establish metrics and processes for regression health, station reliability, first-pass yield, retest rate, false failures, and recurring failure modes.
- Support root-cause analysis across the unit under test, fixture, instrumentation, test software, embedded software, FPGA behavior, and electrical interfaces.
Required Qualifications:
5+ years of experience in software engineering, test automation, embedded systems, hardware-integrated software, manufacturing test, avionics, aerospace, robotics, automotive, industrial systems, or similar fields.
2+ years of direct people-management experience leading software, test, or hardware-integration engineers.
Demonstrated experience building, deploying, and sustaining automated functional-test systems for complex hardware.
Strong Python experience, particularly for automation frameworks, hardware communication, instrument control, data acquisition, and test orchestration.
Experience with C++ or C in embedded, systems, device-control, or hardware-facing applications.
Experience working directly with electrical hardware, test fixtures, instrumentation, and devices under test.
Familiarity with FPGA-enabled hardware and the ability to work effectively with FPGA engineers on system-level test and debug.
Familiarity with common interfaces and protocols such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, UDP, serial, CAN, SPI, I2C, USB, GPIO, PCIe, or JTAG.
Experience with Git, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, release management, and configuration control.
Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively across software, electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and program teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience developing automated production test equipment for avionics, aerospace, defense, autonomous systems, robotics, or other mission-critical hardware.
Experience designing reusable test frameworks rather than only writing one-off test scripts.
Experience with programmable power supplies, electronic loads,, DAQ systems, digital I/O, network equipment, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or custom test fixtures.
Experience with FPGA programming, bitstream management, register-level control, JTAG, board bring-up, or FPGA-adjacent debug.
Experience with embedded Linux, microcontrollers, board-support packages, device drivers, or real-time systems.
Experience with production traceability, serial-number tracking, test-result databases, calibration workflows, manufacturing systems, or quality systems.
Experience in a regulated, safety-critical, mission-critical, or configuration-controlled engineering environment.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience in software engineering, test automation, embedded systems, hardware-integrated software, manufacturing test, avionics, aerospace, robotics, automotive, industrial systems, or similar fields.
- 2+ years of direct people-management experience leading software, test, or hardware-integration engineers.
- Experience building, deploying, and sustaining automated functional-test systems for complex hardware.
- Strong Python experience for automation frameworks, hardware communication, instrument control, data acquisition, and test orchestration.
- Experience with C++ or C in embedded, systems, device-control, or hardware-facing applications.
- Experience working directly with electrical hardware, test fixtures, instrumentation, and devices under test.
- Familiarity with FPGA-enabled hardware and collaboration with FPGA engineers on system-level test and debugging.
- Familiarity with interfaces and protocols including Ethernet, TCP/IP, UDP, serial, CAN, SPI, I2C, USB, GPIO, PCIe, or JTAG.
- Experience with Git, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, release management, and configuration control.
- Strong communication skills and ability to work across software, electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and program teams.
- Experience developing automated production test equipment for avionics, aerospace, defense, autonomous systems, robotics, or mission-critical hardware.
- Experience designing reusable test frameworks rather than one-off test scripts.
- Experience with programmable power supplies, electronic loads, DAQ systems, digital I/O, network equipment, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or custom test fixtures.
- Experience with FPGA programming, bitstream management, register-level control, JTAG, board bring-up, or FPGA-adjacent debugging.
- Experience with embedded Linux, microcontrollers, board-support packages, device drivers, or real-time systems.
- Experience with production traceability, serial-number tracking, test-result databases, calibration workflows, manufacturing systems, or quality systems.
- Experience in a regulated, safety-critical, mission-critical, or configuration-controlled engineering environment.
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Gallery
%203.jpg)
Shield AI Teams
.jpg)
Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
