Director, Mechanical Systems X-BAT

Shield AI's mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

Shield AI is seeking a Director of X-BAT Mechanical Systems to lead engineering managers and senior technical leaders responsible for mechanical systems and mechanical test on X-BAT, while overseeing Mechanical Engineering and Air Vehicle Systems across our Group 5 aircraft programs.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the mechanical systems and mechanical test organization for X-BAT, while providing leadership across Mechanical Engineering and Air Vehicle Systems for our Group 5 aircraft portfolio.
• Define organizational structure, establish clear ownership and decision authority, and align talent and resources with aircraft and program priorities.
• Recruit, coach, and develop engineering managers and senior technical leaders, building leadership capacity, technical depth, and succession capability.
• Establish technical strategy, capability roadmaps, and development priorities for landing gear, wing fold, doors, flight control actuation, hydraulics, environmental control, and thermal management.
• Lead aircraft-level architecture and trade studies that balance performance, reliability, safety, mass, power, volume, maintainability, cost, and schedule.
• Partner with adjacent engineering organizations to resolve interfaces, reconcile competing requirements, manage dependencies, and retire critical technical risks.
• Oversee execution from requirements definition and design through hardware development, systems integration, qualification, ground test, and flight readiness.
• Establish practical expectations for design reviews, verification, risk management, and configuration control that produce clear evidence of design maturity and readiness.
• Build mechanical test capability encompassing test strategy, facilities, fixtures, instrumentation, procedures, and data analysis to accelerate learning and verify system performance.
• Guide hardware development and supplier strategy, establish technical expectations, and hold suppliers and manufacturing partners accountable for quality and execution.
• Work closely with manufacturing, ground test, and flight test leadership to align resources, resolve hardware issues, and deliver integrated systems for aircraft evaluation.
• Communicate technical direction, progress, risks, decisions, and resource needs to executive leadership, program stakeholders, and customers.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 15+ years of relevant experience in aerospace mechanical systems, air vehicle systems, or comparable complex hardware development.
• Substantial experience managing engineering managers and senior technical leaders within a multidisciplinary engineering organization.
• Broad technical credibility across aircraft mechanical systems, with significant expertise in landing gear, actuation, mechanisms, environmental control, or thermal management.
• Demonstrated success building engineering organizations, hiring and developing leaders, allocating resources, and maintaining high technical standards.
• Experience guiding teams through hardware development, systems integration, verification, supplier execution, manufacturing, and flight test.
• Proven ability to make aircraft-level tradeoffs, manage dependencies across programs, and focus teams on work that advances program objectives.
• Sound engineering and business judgment, including the ability to make decisions with incomplete information while balancing technical risk, cost, schedule, and program maturity.
• Clear, decisive communication skills and demonstrated success creating alignment across engineering, program leadership, and external stakeholders.
• U.S. citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Leadership experience spanning multiple mechanical engineering departments or a broad air vehicle systems portfolio.
• Development experience on UAVs, autonomous aircraft, fighters, tactical aircraft, or other high-performance aerospace programs.
• Experience scaling engineering organizations, mechanical test facilities, and development processes in a rapid research and development or production environment.
• Familiarity with aircraft airworthiness, qualification, and verification practices, including MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810.
• Demonstrated success taking aircraft hardware through prototype build, integration, ground test, flight test, and transition to production.
• Advanced degree in a relevant engineering discipline.
• Active Secret or higher security clearance.

Compensation:

• $265,000 - $370,000 a year