Staff Aerostructures Design Engineer

About the role

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Aerostructures Design Engineer to support the development of structural components for its next‑generation autonomous aircraft. As a key contributor on the Mechanical Engineering team, you will design and develop high‑performance structural components from concept through production release.

Key responsibilities

• Design and develop primary and secondary aircraft structural components and assemblies for the UAV platform.
• Execute the full design lifecycle: concept, CAD modeling, detailed design, and drawing release.
• Perform hand calculations for stress and strain and conduct basic FEA analysis under senior guidance.
• Collaborate with aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, payload and manufacturing teams to ensure system integration.
• Support structural validation through coupon testing, sub‑component testing and system‑level verification.
• Generate design documentation, drawings, interface definitions and analysis reports compliant with aerospace standards.
• Work with manufacturing and flight test teams to resolve build issues and support hardware through test and deployment.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering.
• 8+ years of experience in aircraft structural design or closely related aerospace structures.
• Proven experience designing and releasing structural components in development or production environments.
• Working knowledge of composite and metallic structures, fasteners and bonded joints.
• Strong written and verbal technical communication skills.
• Ability to obtain a S//SAR level security clearance (desired).

Required skills

• Proficiency with CAD tools such as NX, CATIA or SolidWorks.
• Knowledge of GD&T, tolerance stack‑ups and DFMA principles.
• Experience with hand calculations and basic linear FEA (ANSYS, Abaqus, NASTRAN).
• Understanding of composite design and manufacturing methods.