Chief Engineer - Launch & Recovery Vehicle (R4033)

The Chief Engineer for the Launch & Recovery Vehicle (LRV) leads the technical development, integration, and validation of a mobile launch and recovery system supporting a Group 5 unmanned aerial vehicle. This role acts as the technical authority and product owner, ensuring the LRV meets mission performance, reliability, and safety objectives through disciplined engineering, rigorous testing, and cross-functional integration. You will define what the vehicle must do, how it will do it, and prove that it can — while managing risk and guiding the team through design, analysis, test, and field operations.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Own the technical direction and ensure the product architecture fulfills mission needs and system constraints.
• Translate user and stakeholder requirements into verifiable system capabilities with defined margins and measures.
• Lead cross-discipline integration, ensuring mechanical, electrical, software, and test teams deliver a coherent design.
• Drive risk reduction and test strategy—plan, prioritize, and execute early demos and stress-to-failure tests.
• Maintain the functional baseline and verify that each subsystem meets its allocated performance and interface requirements.
• Guide trade studies balancing performance, cost, schedule, manufacturability, and reliability.
• Ensure analytical models are correlated to test data, closing the loop between simulation and experiment.
• Control the technical baseline and configuration, approving major design and requirement changes.
• Chair or support technical reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR) and enforce closure of open actions.
• Own the risk register, quantify technical and programmatic risk, and ensure mitigation plans are executable and tracked.
• Serve as the single point of technical accountability to leadership and customers.
• Define and maintain verification and validation (V&V) plans that trace requirements to tests and results.
• Communicate technical status using transparent, quantitative metrics on performance, maturity, and uncertainty.
• Integrate product development with manufacturing and sustainment to ensure designs are buildable and supportable.
• Foster a disciplined, data-driven engineering culture that values early learning, iteration, and truth-seeking.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, or related field (Mechanical/Aerospace ideal).
• 10+ years leading multidisciplinary engineering teams delivering complex electro-mechanical or automation systems.
• Proven record of owning system performance from requirements through test and field validation
• Strong systems engineering discipline — requirements traceability, margins, and verification planning.
• Skilled in risk-based decision-making and tradeoffs across performance, cost, and schedule
• Broad technical fluency across mechanical, electrical, software, and controls domains.
• Experience managing product lifecycle: design, build, integration, and test.
• Comfortable leading technical reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR) and closing actions to standard.
• Effective at cross-functional coordination with manufacturing, test, and operations.
• Clear communicator — able to translate technical reality to executive and customer audiences.

Full-time regular employee offer package:

Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.