The ideal candidate blends strong hands‑on technical expertise with operational leadership, thrives in fast‑paced manufacturing settings, and has experience developing high‑performing technician teams from the ground up. You will work cross‑functionally with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, and Production Planning to ensure material readiness, tooling, documentation, and test equipment are in place, while driving schedule performance, configuration‑management compliance, and continuous improvement across production operation.
What you'll do:
- Lead technicians performing avionics and electrical assembly, installation, integration, functional testing, troubleshooting, rework, inspection support, and production or flight‑readiness activities.
- Oversee work assignment, workload prioritization, coaching, mentoring, training, performance feedback, cross‑training, policy enforcement, and development of daily and weekly operating plans.
- Maintain control of manufacturing and integration environments, ensuring strict adherence to safety, workmanship standards, ESD/FOD prevention, calibration, tool control, serialized hardware traceability, nonconformance processes, quality requirements, and configuration‑management compliance.
- Demonstrate proficiency with electrical and avionics test equipment and guide disciplined troubleshooting and root‑cause analysis across electrical, electronic, wiring, sensor, power, and data‑interface systems.
- Read, interpret, and apply harness and PCBA schematics, wiring diagrams, engineering drawings, interface‑control documents, bills of material, work instructions, travelers, test procedures, and other configuration‑controlled documentation.
- Use production and test data—including yield, defects, failures, rework, labor utilization, WIP, material availability, schedule performance, and training coverage—to identify risks, make sound operational decisions, drive continuous improvement, and escalate issues appropriately.
- Lead production-readiness execution for prototype, developmental, pre-production, and first-article VBAT hardware/software from engineering release through flight-ready delivery.
- Develop and manage prototype and pre-production build schedules, production-floor cut-ins, readiness milestones, risks, dependencies, and recovery plans.
- Support first-article and pilot builds, capture technician feedback and build lessons learned, and drive updates to documentation, tooling, processes, and training before broader production release.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality Engineering, and Production Planning to ensure production‑readiness by confirming materials, tooling, fixtures, test equipment, and technician capacity, closing readiness gaps, and ensuring all work instructions, BOMs, test procedures, inspection criteria, and configuration requirements are complete and executable by production technicians.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in a technical field (Engineering, Technology, Analytics); equivalent technical experience in avionics or aerospace production will be considered.
- 5+ years of hands‑on experience leading technicians or teams in aerospace, defense, UAS, or other advanced manufacturing settings.
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, highly dynamic environment with evolving priorities.
- Excellent analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
- U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain/maintain a security clearance
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience leading avionics or electrical assembly and integration teams within aerospace, defense, UAS, or other complex hardware manufacturing environments.
- Proven expertise with electrical and avionics troubleshooting, system‑level diagnostics, and root‑cause analysis across wiring, electronics, sensors, power systems, and data‑interface architectures.
- Strong proficiency reading and interpreting engineering schematics, wiring diagrams, ICDs, bills of material, work instructions, and other configuration‑controlled documentation.
- Demonstrated success building technician capabilities, establishing production processes, and supporting early prototype through pre‑production and first‑article manufacturing.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in a technical field such as Engineering, Technology, or Analytics, or equivalent technical experience in avionics or aerospace production
- 5+ years of hands-on experience leading technicians or teams in aerospace, defense, UAS, or advanced manufacturing
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with evolving priorities
- Excellent analytical, organizational, and communication skills
- U.S. citizenship
- Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance
- Experience leading avionics or electrical assembly and integration teams
- Expertise in electrical and avionics troubleshooting, system-level diagnostics, and root-cause analysis
- Proficiency reading engineering schematics, wiring diagrams, ICDs, bills of material, work instructions, and configuration-controlled documentation
- Experience building technician capabilities, establishing production processes, and supporting prototype through first-article manufacturing
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.
