Principal Electrical Engineer, Aircraft Systems

About the role

Shield AI is a defense-tech company developing AI pilots for aircraft that protect service members and civilians, including the V-BAT aircraft. It is looking for a Principal Electrical Engineer to design, integrate and troubleshoot the electronics systems critical to the aircraft. The role suits someone with a strong foundation in power, embedded and control systems who wants to own challenging projects and see their work move quickly from concept to flight.

Key responsibilities

• Own flight-critical avionics designs for V-BAT and circuit and subsystem design for V-BAT and its support equipment, including custom circuitry (power management, analog, digital, servos, microcontrollers, sensors, radios).
• Lead others through design, verification and manufacturing deployment, and mentor and give technical feedback to colleagues on the power team and cross-functionally.
• Harden designs for harsh environments such as shock and vibration, high reliability, radiation and high altitude.
• Run full-cycle hardware development: concept, modeling, worst-case analysis, schematic capture, simulation, prototyping, testing and validation.
• Drive PCB layout and design with ECAD engineers, optimizing for power density, EMI, thermal performance and manufacturability.
• Work closely with Mechanical, CAD, Embedded, Software, Supply Chain, Test Automation, Production and other aircraft teams, and lead cross-functional design reviews.
• Manage project timelines, deliverables and technical milestones, and help define technical product requirements and features.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, or equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years of industry experience as an Electrical Engineer.
• Strong technical fundamentals and a proven record of hard work, teamwork and high standards.
• Initiative to identify improvements in hardware development projects and propose and implement innovative solutions.

Required skills

• Circuit design, schematic capture, component selection, circuit testing and debugging.
• Power, embedded and control systems.