Shield AI

Director, Engineering Excellence & Design Standards

Dallas, Texas, U.S.

Full-Time

On-site

$209,197 – $313,795 per year

TLDR

Define and operationalize engineering design standards across the company while driving engineering excellence and quality across multiple disciplines.

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the 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: Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. As we scale both our proven VBAT platform and develop next-generation systems like XBAT, we are investing in how we build—not just what we build. We are seeking a senior technical leader to define and operationalize engineering design standards across the company. This position is focused on establishing engineering excellence—driving consistency, rigor, and scalability across design, analysis, certification, CAD, documentation, and configuration management. This is a high-impact individual contributor role with broad scope across multiple engineering disciplines, responsible for raising the bar on engineering quality without slowing down execution. What you'll do:

Establish and own engineering design standards across programs, including XBAT and VBAT

Define and standardize best practices for aerospace design, analysis workflows, and system-level engineering rigor

Develop standards for CAD usage, drawing quality, standard notes, release processes, and engineering documentation

Manufacturing & supply chain handoff including EBOM and MBOM creation along with driving part demand

Build and mature an engineering excellence framework that scales with the company

Partner with engineering leadership to align teams on consistent ways of working

Ensure standards are practical, accessible, and consistently applied across teams

Influence design decisions and engineering processes across disciplines without becoming a bottleneck

Support both near-term program execution and long-term scalability of engineering processes

Drive improvements in configuration management, documentation quality, and design consistency

Required qualifications:

10+ years of experience in aerospace or high-performance hardware design environments

Deep experience working within organizations that maintain strong engineering standards and design rigor

Broad technical background across multiple engineering domains (mechanical, aerospace, systems, etc.)

Experience defining or applying design standards, documentation practices, and configuration management systems

Familiarity with industry standards such as MIL-STD-810, DO-160, and ASME Y14.5 (GD&T)

Demonstrated ability to influence senior engineers and drive alignment across teams

Strong track record of improving engineering quality, consistency, and scalability

Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate standards and expectations across technical audiences

#LI-JM2

#LF

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.

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Shield AI

Shield AI builds advanced AI-powered autonomy systems for military and defense applications, enabling mission-critical operations in contested environments. Our platform, Hivemind, supports developers and operators with robust tools for quick adaptation and deployment, ensuring superior situational awareness and operational efficiency. With unique solutions like the AI-piloted X-BAT and ViDAR surveillance system, we are transforming how defense technology meets real-world challenges.

Founded: Founded 2015
Employees: 51-200 employees
Industry: Internet Software & Services

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