Staff Engineer – System Reliability for Unmanned Aircraft

About the role

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Engineer to lead reliability modeling and failure‑prediction for its V‑BAT unmanned aircraft system. You will build the quantitative backbone that predicts system failures, informs design decisions, and drives reliability improvements across design, manufacturing, and fleet support.

Key responsibilities

• Build and maintain the V‑BAT system reliability model using field and industry failure‑rate data.
• Create and update the V‑BAT fault tree, identifying single points of failure and quantifying their impact.
• Provide Design‑for‑Reliability guidance in design reviews to eliminate failure sources.
• Partner with design, fleet support, quality, and manufacturing engineers on root‑cause investigations and corrective actions.
• Lead reliability test campaigns in production and sustainment, feeding results back into the model.
• Conduct production reliability screening such as Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) and Environmental Stress Screening (ESS).
• Establish and track reliability metrics (MTBF, failure‑rate trends, reliability growth) and report status to program leadership.

Required profile

• B.S. in Engineering, Mathematics, or Statistics.
• Minimum 7 years of reliability or surety engineering experience in a high‑consequence industry (defense, aerospace, automotive, or medical device).
• Proficiency in Fault Tree Analysis, FMECA, and MTBF calculations.
• Demonstrated ability to build reliability models from field and test data and translate them into actionable design and production decisions.

Required skills

• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
• Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) calculations
• Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) modeling
• Weibull analysis
• Reliability analysis software (Relyence, ReliaSoft/Weibull++, Windchill Risk & Reliability)
• Knowledge of MIL‑HDBK‑217, 217Plus, and MIL‑STD‑756 standards
• Experience with FRACAS and Failure Review Boards
• CRE (ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer) certification (preferred)