Director, Avionics Engineering, V-BAT

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Job Description:

We are seeking a hands-on engineering leader to direct multiple teams spanning electrical design engineering, avionics root cause analysis, and avionics build/test operations. In this role, you will own the technical health and reliability of the avionics systems powering the V-BAT platform — leading the people, processes, and designs that take issues from field observation through root cause resolution and durable design improvement. You will operate at the intersection of design, manufacturing, quality, and fleet support, and you will be measured by the reliability, performance, and manufacturability of what your teams deliver.

What you'll do:

• Lead and grow the team. Mentor and develop a multidisciplinary organization of electrical design engineers, root cause analysis engineers, and avionics build/test technicians, building career paths and technical depth across all three disciplines.
• Set direction and drive execution. Establish team priorities, allocate resources against competing demands, and drive execution while fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Stay technical. Actively contribute to design development and reviews, hands-on root cause analysis, and the definition and validation of corrective actions — leading by technical example, not just management.
• Own investigations end to end. Lead cross-functional failure investigations, establish and verify corrective and preventive actions, and build tooling and infrastructure that accelerate debugging, test, and issue resolution.
• Improve system reliability. Drive coordination across Supply Chain, Reliability, Manufacturing, Quality, and Fleet Support to implement the processes and design changes that measurably increase the reliability and availability of the V-BAT system.
• Build the standard. Establish the standards, review cadences, and metrics (e.g., reliability growth, escape rates, time-to-resolution) that make technical quality repeatable and scalable as the program grows.

Required qualifications:

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering or an equivalent technical field.
• 10+ years of experience, including demonstrated success leading and growing teams of electrical engineers.
• Proven track record of building and scaling high-performing technical teams.
• Experience working cross-functionally across design, supply chain, manufacturing, quality, and fleet/field support.
• Proven ability to plan and execute complex electronic and electrical designs in a high-consequence industry (defense, aerospace, automotive, or medical device).
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-ownership development environment with rapidly evolving priorities.

Preferred qualifications:

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.
• Experience with structured problem-solving and failure analysis methods such as fault tree analysis, fishbone/Ishikawa diagrams, FMEA/FMECA, 8D, or similar.
• Ownership of full product development lifecycles — from concept through release, production ramp, customer sustainment, and product retirement.
• Experience in UAV/UAS design or other autonomous or unmanned systems.
• Familiarity with reliability engineering practices (reliability growth modeling, MTBF/MTBUR analysis, accelerated life testing).

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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.

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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.