We are seeking a technician with hands-on engine overhaul experience to support scheduled 250-hour engine overhaul activity and normal organizational-level V-BAT maintenance. This role is ideal for a technician with piston engine teardown, inspection, rebuild, installation, and troubleshooting experience who can support both dedicated engine overhaul work and day-to-day aircraft maintenance tasks.
What you'll do:
- Perform scheduled 250-hour engine overhauls on V-BAT unmanned aircraft systems, including engine removal, teardown, inspection, cleaning, parts replacement, reassembly, installation, rigging, ground run support, and return-to-service documentation.
- Conduct organizational-level maintenance on V-BAT unmanned aircraft systems and associated Ground Support Equipment.
- Inspect, troubleshoot, repair, and maintain small UAV piston engines, fuel systems, ignition systems, induction/exhaust components, cooling components, engine mounts, propulsor/ducted-fan interfaces, and related engine accessories.
- Use technical manuals, work instructions, drawings, inspection criteria, torque specifications, service bulletins, and overhaul procedures to complete engine maintenance accurately and safely.
- Document all engine overhaul, inspection, discrepancy, repair, replacement, and maintenance actions in accordance with company procedures and applicable quality requirements.
- Construct wiring harnesses and solder necessary components to maintain V-BAT unmanned aircraft systems and associated GSE.
- Comply with written training and certification requirements for maintenance personnel.
- Support the development and improvement of maintenance task instructions, engine overhaul procedures, inspection checklists, and future maintenance manuals.
- Develop relationships with adjacent organizations, including engineering, quality, production, flight operations, supply chain, and field support, to ensure maintenance and overhaul best practices are in place.
- Perform normal V-BAT technician duties when engines are not actively being overhauled.
- Comply with the company’s tool control, FOD prevention, HAZMAT, ESD, and safety programs.
Required qualifications:
- Hands-on experience performing piston engine overhaul, major repair, teardown, inspection, assembly, or rebuild work on aircraft, UAV, small-displacement aviation, powersports, marine, or comparable high-performance engines.
- Experience working with two-stroke, two-cylinder, opposed/twin-cylinder, air-cooled, gasoline, heavy-fuel, or small UAV propulsion systems, or directly comparable engine platforms.
- Ability to read and follow technical manuals, overhaul procedures, illustrated parts catalogs, engineering drawings, torque specifications, inspection criteria, and maintenance work instructions.
- Proficiency using precision measuring and inspection tools such as micrometers, calipers, bore gauges, dial indicators, torque wrenches, feeler gauges, and related engine overhaul tooling.
- Ability to inspect engine components for wear, scoring, cracks, corrosion, heat damage, dimensional limits, and other overhaul rejection criteria.
- Ability to maintain accurate maintenance, overhaul, inspection, configuration, and quality records.
- Experience in aviation maintenance and operations, including coordination across multiple departments.
- Ability to travel as needed.
- Ability to obtain a U.S. security clearance.
- Significant experience and proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Proven record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding oneself and others to high standards, and showing kindness to others.
- U.S.-issued passport.
Preferred qualifications:
- FAA A&P license or equivalent internal or external certification demonstrating technical competency.
- Direct experience overhauling, repairing, or maintaining Suter TOA 288 / 288-series engines or comparable small UAV piston engines.
- Experience performing scheduled engine overhauls at defined service intervals, including 250-hour overhaul programs.
- Experience with Group 2 or Group 3 UAS maintenance, field support, launch/recovery operations, or deployed aviation maintenance environments.
- Experience in the field of Unmanned Aerial Systems.
- Experience with V-BAT, ducted-fan VTOL aircraft, small unmanned aircraft propulsion systems, or expeditionary UAS operations.
- Experience maintaining heavy-fuel, JP-5, JP-8, gasoline, or mixed-fuel UAV engine systems.
- Experience troubleshooting engine performance issues, including hard start, rough running, compression loss, fuel delivery issues, ignition faults, overheating, vibration, exhaust leaks, and abnormal wear.
- Experience in avionics.
- IPC certification.
- Experience with maintenance data collection, failure reporting, root-cause analysis, continuous improvement, or development of overhaul work instructions.
Skills Required
- Hands-on piston engine overhaul, major repair, teardown, inspection, assembly, or rebuild experience on aircraft, UAV, small-displacement aviation, powersports, marine, or comparable high-performance engines.
- Experience with two-stroke, two-cylinder, opposed/twin-cylinder, air-cooled, gasoline, heavy-fuel, or small UAV propulsion systems or comparable engine platforms.
- Ability to read and follow technical manuals, overhaul procedures, illustrated parts catalogs, engineering drawings, torque specifications, inspection criteria, and maintenance work instructions.
- Proficiency using precision measuring and inspection tools such as micrometers, calipers, bore gauges, dial indicators, torque wrenches, feeler gauges, and related engine overhaul tooling.
- Ability to inspect engine components for wear, scoring, cracks, corrosion, heat damage, dimensional limits, and other overhaul rejection criteria.
- Ability to maintain accurate maintenance, overhaul, inspection, configuration, and quality records.
- Experience in aviation maintenance and operations, including coordination across multiple departments.
- Ability to travel as needed.
- Ability to obtain a U.S. security clearance.
- Significant experience and proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Proven record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding oneself and others to high standards, and showing kindness to others.
- U.S.-issued passport.
- Comply with written training and certification requirements for maintenance personnel.
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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