Staff Engineer, Reliability (R6517)

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

As a Hardware Reliability Engineer at Shield AI, you will be responsible for ensuring the robustness and long-term performance of our VBAT flight hardware. You’ll work closely with design, manufacturing, and supplier chain to implement design-for-reliability best practices and perform reliability verification from concept through production.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement design-for-reliability best practices, conduct rigorous testing, shape manufacturing requirements, select materials, and analyze field data to enhance the robustness of VBAT hardware.
• Perform stress screening, environmental testing, and drive failure analysis to ensure flight hardware meets reliability and performance targets.
• Analyze designs and test results to identify potential failure modes and mitigations.
• Collaborate with design engineers to implement design for reliability best practices early in design.
• Act as a key stakeholder in reviewing and approving designs for release.
• Participate in design reviews and failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) to assess potential reliability issues.
• Investigate manufacturing non-conformances and field hardware failures to determine root cause.
• Travel as needed to perform deep dives into supplier processes.
• Develop and recommend corrective actions to address identified reliability issues.
• Utilize reliability modeling and simulation tools to predict system performance and lifespan.
• Stay current with industry trends, advancements, and best practices in hardware reliability engineering.
• Propose and implement process improvements to drive improvements in reliability across the program.

Required qualifications:

• Technical background in materials science, electronics manufacturing processes (PCB fabrication and assembly), hardware reliability concepts, and environmental test practices.
• Self-starting with a growth mindset, excellent problem-solving skills, and attention to detail.
• Bachelor's degree in Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Reliability Engineering.
• Familiarity with electronics (PCBs, PCBAs, electronic components) and moving mechanical assemblies.
• Team-player with clear and concise written and oral communication skills.
• Experience working with interdisciplinary teams to execute product design from concept to production.
• Experience with project management of technical projects.
• Proficiency in Python, including NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, Plotly, and Matplotlib.
• Familiarity with relevant industry standards, including IPC, JEDEC, AIAA, AEC, MIL, and SMC standards.

Preferred qualifications:

• Master's degree in Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Reliability Engineering.
• 3+ years of experience in hardware reliability engineering, preferably with a focus on aerospace or automotive applications.
• Proficiency in failure analysis techniques and materials characterization methods.
• Experience with environmental testing, including temperature cycling, vibration, highly accelerated limit testing (HALT), and highly-accelerated stress screening (HASS).
• Familiarity with PCB fabrication, SMT, and polymerics application manufacturing processes.
• Significant knowledge of reliability engineering principles, methods, and tools.