What you'll do:
- Own the technical lifecycle of production equipment, test racks, and test cells, from production readiness through sustainment and continuous improvement
- Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis of equipment failures, downtime events, and test anomalies; implement corrective and preventive actions
- Drive equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) improvements to support production goals
- Develop and maintain equipment documentation including schematics, BOMs, calibration plans, maintenance procedures, and operating instructions
- Collaborate with Manufacturing, Test, and Quality teams to ensure equipment meets production, safety, and compliance requirements
- Support equipment upgrades, obsolescence management, and capacity expansion as production scales
- Define and execute equipment acceptance testing, validation, and handoff to production
- Mentor junior engineers and technicians and provide technical leadership across equipment-related efforts
- Manage external vendors and integrators as needed for equipment design, build, or modification
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field
- 8+ years of experience supporting production equipment, test racks, or test cells in a manufacturing or test environment
- Strong hands-on experience with electromechanical systems, controls, instrumentation, and data acquisition
- Proven ability to troubleshoot complex equipment issues across hardware, software, and controls domains
- Experience developing and maintaining technical documentation for production equipment
- Ability to work effectively on the factory floor and in cross-functional engineering teams
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting automated or semi-automated production and test equipment
- Familiarity with PLCs, HMIs, industrial networks, or test software (e.g., LabVIEW, Python, or similar)
- Experience with equipment safety standards, lockout/tagout, and risk assessments
- Background in scaling equipment from prototype or low-rate production to higher-rate manufacturing
- Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical projects without direct authority
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field
- 8+ years of experience supporting production equipment, test racks, or test cells in a manufacturing or test environment
- Strong hands-on experience with electromechanical systems, controls, instrumentation, and data acquisition
- Ability to troubleshoot complex equipment issues across hardware, software, and controls domains
- Experience developing and maintaining technical documentation for production equipment
- Ability to work effectively on the factory floor and in cross-functional engineering teams
- Experience supporting automated or semi-automated production and test equipment
- Familiarity with PLCs, HMIs, industrial networks, or test software such as LabVIEW or Python
- Experience with equipment safety standards, lockout/tagout, and risk assessments
- Background in scaling equipment from prototype or low-rate production to higher-rate manufacturing
- Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical projects without direct authority
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 Teams
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
