The Safety Engineer for the X-BAT program will support the development, integration, and verification of system-level safety requirements for this revolutionary next-generation platform. This role bridges engineering design, system safety analysis, airworthiness, and cybersecurity by interrogating technical systems, driving hazard analyses, and ensuring requirements are implemented correctly. This role will be critical to assuring the safe development of the platform in alignment with the high standards of Shield AI.
You will collaborate closely with the System-Safety /Airworthiness Lead, Systems Engineering, and technical Responsible Engineers to maintain the safety baseline and Hazard Tracking System for X-BAT. This role is well suited for an engineer who enjoys analytical safety work, can adjust to the speed of innovation, thrives in cross-disciplinary technical environments, and takes ownership in driving system-level safety decisions.
What you'll do:
- Work with System-Safety / Airworthiness Lead to derive, refine, and validate safety requirements for the X-BAT platform and support systems.
- Apply system safety engineering methods (e.g. STPA, SSA, FTA, PHA, FMEA) to analyze subsystems, interfaces, and integrated architectures, identifying hazards and mitigation strategies.
- Guide engineering teams in allocating safety requirements and verifying mitigation effectiveness.
- Support development of the safety case and certification evidence for X-BAT.
- Partner with cybersecurity specialists to develop and validate cybersecurity related safety requirements.
- Collaborate with Systems Engineering to audit, refine, and assure the X-BAT Hazard Tracking System, ensuring accuracy, traceability, and closure of hazards.
- Assist in creating, reviewing, and maintaining airworthiness and technical safety documentation for X-BAT.
- Support mishap and near miss investigations for the X-BAT platform, providing technical system-level context.
- Participate in design reviews, safety working groups, and change boards to ensure safety considerations are integrated early in the design lifecycle.
- Contribute to risk assessments and support readiness reviews for test, integration, and operational events.
- Direct engagement with Customer and DoD System Safety representatives and alignment of systems, expectations and analysis.
- Other duties as assigned.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering (systems, aerospace, electrical, mechanical, or related field).
- 5–8+ years of experience in system safety, airworthiness, or mission-critical system engineering.
- Experience generating or maintaining hazard logs (HTS/Hazard Tracking Systems).
- Working knowledge of system safety processes and hazard analysis tools.
- Familiarity with requirements management and hazard tracking systems.
- Strong analytical and technical communication skills.
- Ability to collaborate closely with multidisciplinary engineering teams.
- Ability to possess a Secret DoD security clearance as required by customers.
Preferred qualifications:
- Prior experience with UAS or autonomous aircraft platforms.
- Experience with MIL-STD-882, ARP-4761, STANAG safety frameworks, or similar.
- Familiarity with cybersecurity requirements for safety-critical systems.
- Experience generating or maintaining hazard logs (HTS/Hazard Tracking Systems).
- Experience working in fast-paced development or prototyping environments.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in engineering (systems, aerospace, electrical, mechanical, or related field)
- 5-8+ years of experience in system safety, airworthiness, or mission-critical system engineering
- Experience generating or maintaining hazard logs (HTS/Hazard Tracking Systems)
- Working knowledge of system safety processes and hazard analysis tools
- Familiarity with requirements management and hazard tracking systems
- Strong analytical and technical communication skills
- Ability to collaborate closely with multidisciplinary engineering teams
- Prior experience with UAS or autonomous aircraft platforms
- Experience with MIL-STD-882, ARP-4761, STANAG safety frameworks, or similar
- Familiarity with cybersecurity requirements for safety-critical systems
- Experience working in fast-paced development or prototyping environments
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
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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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
