Manager, Mechanical Engineering - Hardware Test (X-BAT)

About the role

Shield AI, a defense-tech company developing AI-powered autonomy software and aircraft systems, is looking for a Manager, Mechanical Engineering to lead the mechanical hardware-test team supporting X-BAT. The team develops and sustains the test stands, fixtures, tooling, support equipment and facility interfaces used to validate mission-critical aircraft hardware across development, integration, qualification and production. The manager is accountable for the team's people, technical direction, operating model and delivery.

Key responsibilities

• Lead, coach and grow a team of mechanical engineers, covering expectations, feedback, career development, performance management, hiring and onboarding.
• Own the mechanical hardware-test roadmap and delivery portfolio across development, subsystem integration, qualification and production-test needs.
• Turn program milestones and verification needs into executable plans with scope, priorities, staffing, schedule, dependencies, decision owners and risk-reduction actions.
• Manage team capacity and workload across concurrent test campaigns, identifying resource gaps and communicating staffing, schedule, budget and technical tradeoffs.
• Set the quality bar for requirements, design reviews, GD&T, tolerance analysis, DFM/DFA, drawing and model release, configuration control, validation, acceptance and sustaining documentation.
• Ensure test stands and fixtures are safe, repeatable, maintainable and efficient, meeting structural, thermal, durability, environmental and facility-interface requirements.
• Serve as the senior mechanical escalation point for architecture, load paths, materials, mechanisms, mounting, cooling, plumbing, instrumentation accommodation and guarding.
• Establish operating metrics such as schedule predictability, first-pass checkout, equipment uptime and recurring failures, and drive standardization and reuse across test assets.
• Partner with test, electrical, avionics, systems, manufacturing, quality, facilities, supply chain, technicians and program leadership, and oversee fabrication, procurement, assembly, commissioning and sustainment with internal shops and external suppliers.
• Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions, and build a culture of technical rigor, urgency, ownership and safe hands-on execution.

Required profile

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or a related STEM discipline.
• 8+ years of experience developing complex mechanical hardware, test equipment, tooling, fixtures or ground-support equipment in aerospace, defense, robotics, automotive, industrial systems or another high-consequence environment.
• 2+ years of direct people-management experience, including coaching, performance management, hiring and developing engineers.
• Demonstrated success leading a team through the design, release, fabrication, assembly, checkout, deployment and sustainment of multiple complex hardware systems.
• Experience managing a multi-project technical roadmap and communicating risk and tradeoffs to program and engineering leadership.
• Active secret clearance or eligibility to obtain one, as well as SCI eligibility (preferred).

Required skills

• Mechanical engineering fundamentals: statics and dynamics, load paths, strength and stiffness, fatigue and durability, materials, fastener design, tolerancing, GD&T and machine or fixture safety.
• Experience establishing engineering standards and leading requirements, architecture and design reviews.
• Proficiency with an industry-standard CAD and product-lifecycle tool such as NX, SolidWorks, CATIA or Teamcenter.
• Hands-on judgment in lab, prototype, manufacturing or production environments.