# Engineering Manager, Air Vehicle Mechanical Systems (R5391)

**Company**: Shield AI
**Location**: San Diego, California
**Work arrangement**: onsite
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: full-time
**Salary**: USD 152,802-229,202 per-year-salary
**Category**: Engineering
**Industry**: Technology

**Apply**: https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/c2acfb31-06ad-490b-b860-297806ea1add?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_b4a525bc-c04

## Description

Shield AI is seeking a Manager of Actuated Systems to lead an aircraft mechanical systems team for its groundbreaking jet-engine VTOL military UAV platform, X-BAT.

You will manage a team of engineers designing and integrating flight- and mission-critical mechanisms such as doors, uplocks/downlocks, landing gear, folding/packaging mechanisms, flight-control actuation integration, and propulsion/nozzle actuation mechanisms.

## Responsibilities

- Lead and develop a team of high-talent mechanical engineers, from new grad to Principal, focused on aircraft mechanisms and actuation systems (architecture, detailed design, analysis support, release, and sustaining).

- Support your team as a technical resource for end-to-end design of mechanisms including:

- Doors & latching

- Uplocks / Downlocks

- Landing gear mechanisms

- Actuation integration for flight controls

- Nozzle / propulsion actuation mechanisms

- Actuation, Hydraulics

- Set the quality bar for mechanisms engineering: what 'good' looks like in sizing, tolerances, margins, drawings/MBD, materials/process selection, and verification evidence.

- Enable extreme ownership by ensuring engineers have clear goals, interfaces, resources, and decision rights.

- Drive effective cross-functional collaboration (systems, structures/loads, aero, propulsion, GNC, avionics, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, test, flight test) by fostering excellent communication across interfaces.

- Coach and develop engineers through technical mentorship, career development, feedback, hiring, onboarding, and performance management.

- Manage team workload across multiple builds and test campaigns; communicate risk, staffing needs, and schedule impacts with transparency.

## Requirements

- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent).

- 10+ years experience with aerospace mechanisms and actuated system design, build, integration, test and flight.

- 2+ years leading teams or performing in a team leadership role.

- Demonstrated ability to lead teams with high autonomy,setting direction, ensuring quality, and scaling output through people.

- Strong engineering fundamentals: kinematics, statics/dynamics, fatigue/wear, tolerancing/GD&T, materials and finishes, lubrication/bearings, failure modes.

- Experience shipping hardware through prototype build, test, iteration, and release, including supplier and manufacturing engagement.

## Nice to Have

- Experience with environmental and operational robustness (vibration/shock, thermal extremes, contamination, corrosion, sand/dust, etc.).

- Experience supporting ground test and flight test campaigns and mechanism failure investigations.

- Familiarity with reliability and safety methods (DFMEA/FTA, fault containment, safe-state thinking) in collaboration with systems safety.

- Experience building supplier relationships for machined parts, actuation systems, mechanisms assemblies, understanding of special processes and inspection/acceptance strategies.

## Benefits

- Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

## Skills

### Required
- Mechanical Engineering
- aerospace mechanisms
- actuated system design
- team leadership
- kinematics
- statics/dynamics
- fatigue/wear
- tolerancing/GD&T
- materials and finishes
- lubrication/bearings
- failure modes

### Nice to have
- environmental and operational robustness
- ground test and flight test campaigns
- mechanism failure investigations
- reliability and safety methods
- supplier relationships

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Source: [Apply at jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/c2acfb31-06ad-490b-b860-297806ea1add?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply)