Engineering Manager, Air Vehicle Mechanical Systems (R5391)

About the role

Shield AI is seeking a Manager of Actuated Systems to lead an aircraft mechanical systems team for its X-BAT, a jet-engine VTOL military UAV platform. The manager leads engineers who design and integrate flight- and mission-critical mechanisms such as doors, uplocks/downlocks, landing gear, folding/packaging mechanisms, flight-control actuation integration and propulsion/nozzle actuation. The role also involves supporting key architectural decisions and leading the team.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of mechanical engineers from new grad to Principal, covering architecture, detailed design, analysis support, release and sustaining.
• Act as a technical resource for end-to-end design of mechanisms, including doors and latching, uplocks/downlocks, landing gear, flight-control actuation integration, nozzle/propulsion actuation and actuation/hydraulics.
• Set the quality bar for mechanisms engineering: sizing, tolerances, margins, drawings/MBD, materials and process selection, and verification evidence.
• Ensure engineers have clear goals, interfaces, resources and decision rights, and foster cross-functional collaboration with systems, structures/loads, aero, propulsion, GNC, avionics, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, test and flight test.
• Coach and develop engineers through mentorship, career development, feedback, hiring, onboarding and performance management.
• Manage workload across multiple builds and test campaigns, communicating risk, staffing needs and schedule impacts.

Required profile

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent).
• 10+ years of experience with aerospace mechanisms and actuated system design, build, integration, test and flight.
• 2+ years leading teams or in a team leadership role.
• Demonstrated ability to lead highly autonomous teams, setting direction, ensuring quality and scaling output through people.

Required skills

• Aerospace mechanisms and actuated systems design, including kinematics, statics/dynamics, fatigue/wear, tolerancing/GD&T, materials and finishes, lubrication/bearings and failure modes.
• Shipping hardware through prototype build, test, iteration and release, including supplier and manufacturing engagement.
• Preferred: environmental and operational robustness (vibration/shock, thermal extremes, contamination, corrosion, sand/dust), ground and flight test support and failure investigations, reliability and safety methods (DFMEA/FTA, fault containment, safe-state thinking), and supplier relationships for machined parts and actuation systems.