Sr Director Engineering, V-BAT

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: We are seeking a Sr Director Engineering to lead all engineering efforts for V-BAT, an established Group 3 VTOL UAS program. This individual will be responsible for directing and sustaining a high-performing, multidisciplinary team that delivers flight software, autonomy, ground control systems, aircraft, and payloads for a vertical takeoff and landing autonomous aircraft that is currently deployed worldwide.  This is a foundational leadership role for an existing product line that is growing in system maturity and mission capability. The ideal candidate combines deep technical experience across complex aerospace and UAS systems (with the ability to dive deep across a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines), a background in innovative and disruptive companies, and a proven ability to build and scale organizations and collaborate across disciplines in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment. 

What you'll do: Leadership & Strategy

- Build and lead the engineering and software team for the Group 3 UAS program, spanning flight software, autonomy, flight controls/GNC, ground systems, flight systems, flight sciences, avionics, payloads, and propulsion.

- Define the engineering vision, technical strategy, and system architecture in alignment with the program roadmap, product line strategy, and long-term technology investments.

- Serve as the senior technical leader for engineering within the program, making architectural decisions, managing technical and program risk, and driving execution across subsystems and suppliers.

- Lead organizational planning, workforce strategy, and capability roadmap to support multiple concurrent development, test, and sustainment efforts.

- Drive cross-functional collaboration across engineering, flight test, operations, program management, supply chain, quality, and production to enable predictable, high-quality product delivery.

Technical Governance & Engineering Excellence

- Establish and continuously improve engineering standards, technical governance, configuration management, documentation practices, and development processes (including CI/CD, automated testing, and modern DevOps practices).

- Drive engineering rigor through disciplined technical reviews, root cause analysis, lessons learned, and continuous improvement while maintaining the execution speed required in a fast-paced development environment.