Senior Staff Engineer, Mechanical & Actuated Systems

About the role

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company developing autonomous UAV products, including the X-BAT aircraft platform. As a Senior Staff Mechanical & Actuated Systems Engineer, you will drive the mechanical design and development of these products, helping to architect mechanical and actuated systems and perform detailed design of complex assemblies such as uplocks, doors, flight controls, landing gear and wing fold.

Key responsibilities

• Design complex electro-mechanical or hydro-mechanical mechanisms for autonomous aircraft
• Own the full design process: concept, CAD design, analysis, tolerance stackups, material selection and drawing release
• Perform structural and kinematic calculations and preliminary FEA
• Prototype, test and iterate mechanism designs for functionality and reliability
• Collaborate with electrical, avionics, hydraulics, flight controls and propulsion teams
• Mentor junior engineers and help set technical direction
• Support pre-production builds, prototype integration and ground/flight testing

Required profile

• B.S. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
• 10+ years in mechanical or mechanism design
• Ability to work independently in fast-paced, cross-functional teams
• Demonstrated record of hard work, trustworthiness, high standards and kindness

Required skills

• Strong CAD skills (NX preferred)
• Kinematic analysis and optimization
• Structural analysis by hand calculation and finite element methods
• FEA: modal, non-linear and linear, buckling, fatigue
• GD&T and tolerance stack-ups
• Materials selection including alloys, heat treatments, allowables and finishes

Preferred: UAV, aircraft or robotic system experience; familiarity with electro-mechanical actuators; FMEA, DOE and root cause analysis; machine shop or mechanic experience; RTCA DO-160, MIL-STD-810 or actuated mechanism testing experience; comfort in startup, R&D or defense innovation environments.