Director, Mechanical Systems X-BAT

Shield AI•Seattle, WA

About The Position

Shield AI is seeking a Director of X-BAT Mechanical Systems to lead engineering managers and senior technical leaders responsible for mechanical systems and mechanical test on X-BAT, while providing leadership across Mechanical Engineering and Air Vehicle Systems for its Group 5 aircraft programs. The role establishes technical strategy, builds organizational capability, and oversees execution from architecture and design through integration, qualification, ground test, and flight readiness. Areas of scope include landing gear, wing fold, doors, flight control actuation, hydraulics, environmental control, and thermal management. The ideal candidate brings broad aircraft mechanical systems expertise and experience leading through managers, developing technical leaders, and balancing engineering rigor with development speed. They will empower teams, challenge critical decisions, and engage directly when needed to advance aircraft capability.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
15+ years of relevant experience in aerospace mechanical systems, air vehicle systems, or comparable complex hardware development.
Substantial experience managing engineering managers and senior technical leaders within a multidisciplinary engineering organization.
Broad technical credibility across aircraft mechanical systems, with significant expertise in landing gear, actuation, mechanisms, environmental control, or thermal management.
Demonstrated success building engineering organizations, hiring and developing leaders, allocating resources, and maintaining high technical standards.
Experience guiding teams through hardware development, systems integration, verification, supplier execution, manufacturing, and flight test.
Proven ability to make aircraft-level tradeoffs, manage dependencies across programs, and focus teams on work that advances program objectives.
Sound engineering and business judgment, including decision-making with incomplete information while balancing technical risk, cost, schedule, and program maturity.
Clear, decisive communication skills and demonstrated success creating alignment across engineering, program leadership, and external stakeholders.
U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Leadership experience spanning multiple mechanical engineering departments or a broad air vehicle systems portfolio.
Development experience on UAVs, autonomous aircraft, fighters, tactical aircraft, or other high-performance aerospace programs.
Experience scaling engineering organizations, mechanical test facilities, and development processes in a rapid research and development or production environment.
Familiarity with aircraft airworthiness, qualification, and verification practices, including MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810.
Demonstrated success taking aircraft hardware through prototype build, integration, ground test, flight test, and transition to production.
Advanced degree in a relevant engineering discipline.
Active Secret or higher security clearance.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the X-BAT mechanical systems and mechanical test organization, while providing leadership across Mechanical Engineering and Air Vehicle Systems for Group 5 aircraft programs.
Define organizational structure, ownership, decision authority, and allocation of talent and resources in alignment with aircraft and program priorities.
Recruit, coach, and develop engineering managers and senior technical leaders, building leadership capacity, technical depth, and succession capability.
Establish technical strategy, capability roadmaps, and development priorities for landing gear, wing fold, doors, flight control actuation, hydraulics, environmental control, and thermal management.
Lead aircraft-level architecture and trade studies balancing performance, reliability, safety, mass, power, volume, maintainability, cost, and schedule.
Partner with adjacent engineering organizations to resolve interfaces, reconcile competing requirements, manage dependencies, and retire critical technical risks.
Oversee execution from requirements definition and design through hardware development, systems integration, qualification, ground test, and flight readiness.
Set practical expectations for design reviews, verification, risk management, and configuration control, producing clear evidence of design maturity and readiness.
Build mechanical test capability, including test strategy, facilities, fixtures, instrumentation, procedures, and data analysis.
Guide hardware development and supplier strategy, establish technical expectations, and hold suppliers and manufacturing partners accountable for quality and execution.
Work with manufacturing, ground test, and flight test leadership to align resources, resolve hardware issues, and deliver integrated systems for aircraft evaluation.
Communicate technical direction, progress, risks, decisions, and resource needs to executive leadership, program stakeholders, and customers.