Senior Staff Engineer, Flight Control Actuation Systems - Ranger (R6327)

Shield AI•Seattle, WA

About The Position

Shield AI is hiring a Senior Staff Engineer to take full technical ownership of flight control actuation system design for a Group 5 UAV fighter aircraft. The role covers defining requirements, resolving actuator and integration tradeoffs, and advancing qualified flight-control actuation hardware from design through production support. It calls for technical rigor, rapid decision-making, and hands-on engineering in an accelerated aircraft development environment. The engineer will coordinate actuation-system integration across flight controls, vehicle management systems, electrical power systems, hydraulic systems, thermal management, and structures. The role also includes planning and executing qualification activities and leading design-maturity and qualification-status reviews at SRR, PDR, and CDR.

Requirements

8 to 15 years of experience in flight control actuation system design on fixed-wing aircraft.
B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
Proven experience sourcing COTS or custom aerospace components, driving suppliers to schedule, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups.
Ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks without oversight, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines.
Experience analyzing actuator dynamic performance, including bandwidth, response, stability margins, failure modes, and redundancy.
Experience coordinating actuator-control-law integration with flight-controls and VMS engineers.
Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810 as applied to flight control actuation.
Experience supporting SRR, PDR, and CDR on a DoD or fighter-class aircraft program.

Nice To Haves

Prior fighter or fighter-adjacent program experience, manned or unmanned.
Unmanned or autonomous flight control experience, including understanding of redundancy-philosophy differences from manned aircraft.
Experience with EMA or EHA control-surface actuators.
Eligible for a Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

Define, allocate, and own flight control actuation system (FCAS) requirements and the verification traceability matrix.
Design and analyze control-surface actuation systems, including sizing, dynamic response, bandwidth, redundancy, and failure modes.
Drive the actuator and control-law interface with Flight Controls and Vehicle Management Systems, including actuator-dynamics modeling and control-surface authority requirements.
Coordinate actuator power-source architecture and load analysis with electrical power systems and hydraulic systems leads.
Resolve actuator heat-generation and local thermal-load interfaces with thermal management.
Coordinate control-surface hinge moments and actuator reaction loads with structures.
Define and execute FCAS qualification test plans in accordance with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810, using test results to mature qualified flight-control actuation hardware.
Lead FCAS design-maturity and qualification-status reviews at SRR, PDR, and CDR.
Support flight-control actuation hardware from design through production.