Chief Engineer, Air Vehicle Lead - Ranger

About the role

Shield AI is hiring an Air Vehicle Lead for its new Air Force Ranger program. As the senior technical leader, you will own the design, development, integration and maturation of the air vehicle, from requirements and architecture through detailed design, build, ground test, flight test and production. This is a highly technical, hands-on leadership role spanning aerodynamics, flight sciences, structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, manufacturing and test.

Key responsibilities

• Own the air vehicle: overall architecture, technical performance, integration and design integrity throughout the development lifecycle.
• Provide technical direction across aerodynamics, flight sciences, structures, mechanical systems, propulsion, avionics, electrical systems and flight controls.
• Lead first-principles trades across performance, weight, range, payload, cost, reliability, manufacturability, schedule and technical risk.
• Drive the aircraft from requirements and conceptual design through preliminary and critical design, hardware release, build, integration, ground test and flight test, resolving issues that threaten program execution.
• Stay hands-on: take part in design reviews, technical problem solving, root-cause investigations, test activities and critical design decisions.
• Identify and close the technical problems most likely to block mission success, balancing analysis, test, schedule and speed.
• Create a rapid build-test-learn environment using prototypes, ground and flight testing and real-world data.
• Ensure interfaces between structures, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, payloads, software and other systems are understood and integrated.
• Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality and Operations so the aircraft can move into production, and partner with suppliers and partners on externally developed systems.
• Mentor engineers and technical leaders and set a culture of technical ownership and disciplined engineering judgment.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline; master's degree or higher preferred.
• 15+ years of relevant aircraft development experience, including significant technical leadership on complex aerospace programs.
• Demonstrated experience leading an air vehicle or major aircraft system through design, build, integration, ground test, flight test and production.
• Ability to make difficult technical decisions with incomplete information and to drive teams to solutions at speed.
• Experience partnering with manufacturing and suppliers to bring complex aerospace hardware into production.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the program.