As a PCB Designer at Shield AI, you will be responsible for creating the layouts that support our aircraft. You’ll work closely with electrical, mechanical and manufacturing engineers to translate schematics and requirements into robust, manufacturable PCBA designs. You will be involved in all steps of the PCBA design process including stack-up design, constraint management, mechanical placement planning, generating drawings and manufacturing outputs.
What you'll do:
- Create PCB layouts for complex digital, analog, RF, high-speed, and power electronics designs.
- Plan and manage PCB stack-ups in collaboration with fabrication vendors and manufacturing engineers.
- Partner with electrical engineers to interpret schematics, routing rules, and design intent.
- Collaborate with mechanical engineers to ensure proper board form factor integration, connector positioning, placement constraints.
- Apply best practices for signal integrity, power integrity, grounding, impedance control, and thermal/EMI mitigation.
- Conduct design reviews and implement feedback to ensure manufacturability, reliability, and compliance with company standards.
- Generate and maintain manufacturing documentation, including Gerber/ODB++ files, fabrication and assembly notes and drawings.
- Work with manufacturing engineering to ensure designs meet supplier DFM requirements.
Required qualifications:
- 8+ years of experience in PCB layout for production hardware (or equivalent combination of education and experience)
Preferred qualifications:
- Solid understanding of IPC standards (IPC-2221/2222, IPC-7351, etc.)
- Familiar with PCB materials and manufacturing process, and stack-up construction.
- Familiarity with controlled-impedance routing, differential pairs, length matching, and high-current power distribution.
- Experience with scripting and automation
- Experience with Altium Designer
- Experience using simulation tools to validate layout designs
Skills Required
- 8+ years of experience in PCB layout for production hardware, or equivalent education and experience
- Understanding of IPC standards, including IPC-2221, IPC-2222, and IPC-7351
- Familiarity with PCB materials, manufacturing processes, and stack-up construction
- Familiarity with controlled-impedance routing, differential pairs, length matching, and high-current power distribution
- Experience with scripting and automation
- Experience with Altium Designer
- Experience using simulation tools to validate layout designs
What the Team is Saying
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.
