Director Mechanical Systems

Job Description

Shield AI’s mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. We develop autonomy software and advanced aircraft to help U.S. and allied forces accomplish their missions in challenging environments.

Are you an experienced engineering leader passionate about developing advanced autonomous aircraft? Do you want to build exceptional teams and deliver the mechanical systems that turn aircraft ambition into flight capability? Shield AI may be the place for you.

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. This leader will establish technical strategy, build organizational capability, and oversee execution from architecture and design through integration, qualification, ground test, and flight readiness.

The scope includes landing gear, wing fold, doors, flight control actuation, hydraulics, environmental control, and thermal management. The ideal candidate combines broad aircraft mechanical systems expertise with a demonstrated ability to lead through managers, develop technical leaders, and balance engineering rigor with development speed. They bring the judgment to empower teams, challenge critical decisions, and engage directly when needed to advance aircraft capability.

What You'll Do:

• 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.

Required Qualifications:

• 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.

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Full-time regular employee offer package:

Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.