Senior Engineer, Reliability (R5950)

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 Senior Reliability Engineer to lead reliability engineering activities for the development, integration, testing, and operation of aircraft systems. This position will work across engineering disciplines to establish reliability requirements, manage system reliability budgets, perform reliability analyses, and identify design improvements that increase aircraft availability and mission success.

The successful candidate will have direct experience working on aircraft or other complex aerospace systems and be proficient with industry-standard reliability tools and methods. This engineer will serve as the primary reliability point of contact for assigned programs and communicate reliability performance, risks, and improvement plans to engineering leadership and customers.

What you'll do:

• Develop and maintain aircraft-level reliability requirements, objectives, and program reliability plans.
• Establish, allocate, and manage reliability budgets across systems, subsystems, and line-replaceable units.
• Track predicted reliability against program targets and identify components or subsystems driving reliability risk.
• Perform reliability predictions using component failure-rate data, operating environments, and mission profiles.
• Conduct Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) analysis.
• Support aircraft system safety assessments by providing failure rates, failure modes, and reliability data.
• Develop and maintain Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time Between Critical Failure (MTBCF), mission reliability, availability, and related reliability metrics.
• Perform reliability allocation, trade studies, sensitivity analyses, and design assessments.
• Lead or support Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System (FRACAS) activities.
• Analyze ground-test, flight-test, supplier, maintenance, and field-performance data to identify reliability trends.
• Apply Weibull analysis and other statistical methods to evaluate failure behavior and predict component life.
• Work with design teams to eliminate single-point failures, reduce high-risk failure modes, and improve fault tolerance.
• Review supplier reliability analyses, test results, and supporting technical data.
• Define reliability demonstration and growth-test requirements, success criteria, and data-collection needs.
• Support technical reviews, including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and reliability review boards.
• Communicate reliability performance, budget status, assumptions, risks, and recommended corrective actions to customers and program leadership.
• Mentor junior engineers and improve organizational reliability processes, tools, and standards.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in reliability engineering, systems engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a related technical field.
• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree
• Direct experience supporting aircraft development, integration, testing, sustainment, or operations.
• Experience developing and managing reliability budgets at the system, subsystem, or equipment level.
• Proficiency with reliability methods such as FMEA/FMECA, FTA, RBD, Weibull analysis, reliability predictions, and FRACAS.
• Familiarity with reliability metrics such as MTBF, MTBCF, failure rate, mission reliability, operational availability, and inherent availability.
• Experience using reliability analysis tools such as ReliaSoft, Windchill Quality Solutions, Isograph, RAM Commander, or equivalent.
• Ability to interpret aircraft mission profiles, operating environments, duty cycles, and test data.
• Experience working with multidisciplinary engineering teams and suppliers.
• Strong analytical, technical writing, presentation, and customer communication skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain any security clearance required for the program.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience working on military aircraft, unmanned aircraft, or other defense aerospace platforms.
• Experience managing aircraft-level reliability allocations and flowing requirements down to suppliers.
• Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-217, NPRD, EPRD, RIAC 217Plus, or equivalent reliability prediction methods and databases.
• Experience integrating reliability engineering with system safety, maintainability, logistics, and availability analyses.
• Knowledge of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) and condition-based maintenance approaches.
• Experience supporting environmental qualification, ground testing, flight testing, or reliability growth testing.
• Familiarity with Model-Based Systems Engineering and requirements management tools.
• Certified Reliability Engineer credentials or equivalent professional certification.
• Active U.S. security clearance.

Success in this role:

The successful engineer will establish a clear aircraft reliability strategy, maintain ownership of the reliability budget, and provide program leadership with an accurate view of reliability performance and risk. They will use analysis and test data to identify the primary reliability drivers and work directly with engineering teams and suppliers to improve the design before failures affect aircraft availability or mission performance.

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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.

San Diego, CA and Dallas, TX range: $110,000 - $170,000

Seattle, WA range: $140,000 - $210,000