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.
What you'll do:
- Design propulsion system components and subsystems for V-BAT, including:
- Fuel and oil delivery hardware
- Two-stroke engine components and supporting hardware
- Engine thermal-control components
- Propeller and ducted-fan-adjacent mechanical hardware
- Mounts, brackets, housings, retention features, tubing supports, and related propulsion hardware
- Perform mechanical analysis to guide and validate your designs, including:
- Static strength and stiffness analysis
- Hand calculations and fundamental sizing
- Finite element analysis where appropriate
- Fatigue and durability assessment
- Vibration and modal analysis
- Bolted-joint, bearing, shaft, bracket, and mount analysis
- Thermal growth, clearance, and tolerance-stack analysis
- Basic thermal/structural coupling where needed
- Own mechanical design trades between mass, stiffness, strength, cost, manufacturability, serviceability, and reliability.
- Create and maintain high-quality CAD models and drawing packages for propulsion components and assemblies.
- Route and retain wire harnesses, fuel lines, oil lines, cooling lines, and other propulsion-adjacent tubing or fluid systems.
- Own engineering change orders, or ECOs, for your components from problem definition through release.
- Support configuration management for the propulsion system, including accurate documentation of released hardware, prototype configurations, and production cut-ins.
- Coordinate design releases with manufacturing, quality, supply chain, flight test, program management, and other engineering teams.
- Own and execute verification and validation test campaigns for your hardware
- Analyze test data from ground and flight testing to determine whether components are meeting structural, thermal, vibration, durability, and reliability requirements.
- Work closely with electrical, mechanical, aero-performance, software, manufacturing, and flight-test engineers to ensure your designs integrate cleanly into the full aircraft.
- Investigate failures, nonconformances, production escapes, and field issues, then drive corrective actions through design updates, process changes, or test improvements.
Required qualifications:
- B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering.
- 5+ years of professional mechanical design experience.
- Strong proficiency with 3D CAD modeling and detailed mechanical design.
- Experience developing production-ready engineering drawings and documentation.
- Understanding of GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing) and manufacturing processes.
- Experience owning components through the full product lifecycle from concept through production.
- Experience supporting prototype builds, testing, and design iteration.
- Strong cross-functional communication and project coordination skills.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced hardware development environment.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience in aerospace, aviation, defense, motorsports, or other high-performance mechanical systems.
- Proficiency with Siemens NX.
- Experience designing engine, propulsion, fuel, lubrication, thermal management, or rotating machinery systems.
- Experience with wire harness routing, tubing design, and aircraft integration.
- Familiarity with configuration management and engineering change processes.
- Experience supporting flight test programs or airborne hardware development.
- Knowledge of composites, sheet metal, machined components, castings, and additive manufacturing.
- Experience with environmental, durability, vibration, and qualification testing.
- Familiarity with FAA, military, or aerospace development practices.