Senior Engineer, Flight Test (R5371) at Shield in San Diego, CA

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Job Description:

Are you a passionate and innovative engineer looking to help develop state-of-the-art AI and robotics products? Are you eager to make a positive difference in the world? Do you want to work alongside mission-driven and values-focused teammates? Shield AI is just the place for you!

The Hivemind Quality team is committed to ensuring our autonomy platform delivers reliable, mission-ready capabilities through rigorous integration, validation, and flight testing. We work closely with autonomy, platform, and hardware teams to validate new features in simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and real-world flight environments, ensuring our customers can confidently deploy autonomous systems in demanding operational conditions.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Flight Test Engineer passionate about autonomy development and system validation. In this role, you will develop and execute comprehensive flight test strategies that validate autonomous behaviors, software integrations, and end-to-end system performance. You will work closely with software, hardware, and product teams to reproduce real-world mission scenarios, identify product issues, and improve the quality and reliability of the Hivemind platform. You are responsible for determining test readiness, directing test conduct, managing risk, and ensuring data-driven decisions throughout development and flight test operations.

What you'll do:

• Lead system-level integration and flight test campaigns for Hivemind Mission Autonomy across small UAS and external platforms.

• Develop and execute test strategies, plans, scenarios, and success criteria that validate autonomy capabilities, software integrations, system performance, and operational customer workflows.

• Own test readiness and phase-gate decisions across simulation, SIL, HIL, ground, and flight testing, including entry and exit criteria, configuration control, and objective prioritization.

• Plan, direct, and execute fly–fix–fly campaigns, coordinating cross-functional engineering teams and test operators to enable rapid, disciplined iteration.

• Approve test procedures, test cards, and execution plans; lead risk assessments, hazard analyses, and mitigation planning while serving as the final authority during test conduct.

• Define and maintain test infrastructure, including simulation environments, flight assets, hardware configurations, multi-agent systems, and automated test pipelines.

• Analyze flight logs, telemetry, rosbags, and system data to identify defects, determine root causes, document anomalies and corrective actions, and ensure results are traceable to requirements and mission outcomes.

• Serve as the primary test interface to leadership, customers, and external stakeholders while establishing SOPs, reporting test progress and risk, and advancing industry test practices.

Required qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 4 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience.

• Experience in system integration and test, including SIL, HIL, simulation, and flight test environments

• Highly organized and methodical, with the ability to manage complex, fast-paced test campaigns

• Strong written and verbal communication skills for safety-of-flight processes, hazard analysis, and configuration control in flight test environments

• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to analyze flight logs, telemetry, and system behavior to identify root causes.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate across software, hardware, product, and test organizations.

• FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate (or the ability to obtain one within a reasonable timeframe).

Preferred qualifications:

• Familiarity with networking, Linux operating systems, and radio communications.

• Experience with hardware design selection and 3D prototyping

• Experience with modern software interfaces such as Codex and GitLab

• Experience with open-source flight controller software and sensor integration

• Experience with debugging autonomy subsystems through ROS logs

• Experience developing automated test tooling, validation frameworks, or data analysis tools in CI/CD pipelines

#LI-DSC

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.

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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.

Compensation Range: $118.8K - $178.2K