---
title: 'Director, Engineering Excellence & Design Standards at Shield AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-engineering-excellence-design-standards-shield-ai-seattle-aaqy4y5whjwb'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Director, Engineering Excellence & Design Standards at Shield AI

- **Company:** Shield AI
- **Location:** Seattle, WA
- **Compensation:** $209k–$314k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-04-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/ea6d68b6-f5d1-4b80-abb0-0db794279b8c

## Job description

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:

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
- Ability to obtain a S//SAR level security clearance desired.

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.

###

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.

## About Shield AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Shield AI builds AI pilots and autonomous systems for military aircraft to protect service members and civilians.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series G, venture-backed)
- **Headquarters**: San Diego, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Founders**: Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, Andrew Reiter

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Defense technology, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, aerospace
- Target customers: U.S. Department of Defense, allied nations’ military forces (B2G / Government)
- Mission or purpose statement: “Protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.”

## Products & Services
- **Hivemind**: A combat‑tested, modular autonomy stack for aircraft – self‑driving technology for drones, jets, and helicopters. Includes path‑planning, mapping, state‑estimation, computer vision, and reinforcement learning. Type: Software (AI/autonomy).
- **V‑BAT**: A vertical take‑off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed for persistent ISR and strike missions. Type: Hardware (drone).
- **X‑BAT**: An advanced unmanned aircraft system with extended endurance and payload capacity, built for multi‑domain operations. Type: Hardware (drone).
- **Hivemind Vision Systems**: Computer‑vision and sensor‑fusion capabilities integrated into Hivemind for GPS‑denied environments. Type: Software + sensors.
- **Hivemind Enterprise**: A deployable version of Hivemind for third‑party platforms and commercial applications. Type: Software.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company). Total funding raised: $3.6B (as of Series G in March 2026).
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue ~$21.7M (estimated, private) | Total Funding $3.6B (including $2B Series G led by JP Morgan Chase and Advent International, March 2026).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: JP Morgan Chase, Advent International, Blackstone, Riot Ventures, SnowPoint Ventures, Disruptive (55+ investors total). Strategic partners include U.S. DoD and allied defense forces.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 68.3% YoY to 1,283 employees; 338 active job postings (+57.2% YoY); operates in 5 countries (U.S., Australia, UAE, Norway, Ukraine); recent acquisitions of Sentient Vision Systems (2024), Heron Systems, MARTIN UAV.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Combat‑proven autonomy**: Hivemind has been tested in live military operations, providing a first‑mover advantage in contested, GPS‑denied environments.
- **Full‑stack integration**: Combines software (AI pilot), hardware (V‑BAT, X‑BAT), and sensor systems, creating a tightly integrated product ecosystem.
- **Cross‑functional engineering culture**: Engineers work across AI, robotics, aerospace, and defense – not siloed – enabling rapid iteration and field deployment.
- **Top talent pipeline**: Employees drawn from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Amazon, Anduril, and other leading defense/tech firms.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale AI pilots across all domains**: Extend Hivemind from aircraft to ships, satellites, and ground vehicles (“every military asset”).
- **International expansion**: Growing presence in Australia, Europe, and Middle East via mission autonomy centers and partnerships.
- **Deepen autonomy stack**: Continued investment in reinforcement learning, simulation, and computer vision to maintain leadership in contested‑environment autonomy.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission‑driven work**: Directly contribute to protecting service members and civilians with cutting‑edge AI and robotics.
- **Cross‑functional teams**: Engineers collaborate across disciplines (AI, hardware, software, systems) on real‑world defense challenges.
- **Benefits**: Excellent medical coverage, mental health EAP, paid parental leave, pet insurance, flexible work hours, gym discounts (SD) / on‑site gym (DC), free parking, competitive compensation, 401k with match, stock benefits.
- **Work policy**: Flexible work hours; some offices (e.g., San Diego HQ, Arlington, DC) have on‑site facilities. Remote/hybrid options available depending on role.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapidly scaling (68% headcount growth) with hundreds of open roles across engineering, operations, and program management.

## Sources
1. [shield.ai/about](https://shield.ai/about/)
2. [shield.ai/careers](https://shield.ai/careers/)
3. [LinkedIn – Shield AI](https://www.linkedin.com/company/shield-ai)
4. [CBInsights – Shield AI](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/shield-ai)
5. [Lever – Shield AI Jobs](https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai)

## Other roles at Shield AI

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- [Staff Engineer, UI (R5832)](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-engineer-ui-r5832-shield-ai-melbourne-f17npv0n316y) — Melbourne, Australia
- [Staff Engineer, Safety-Critical Software (R5826)](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-engineer-safety-critical-software-r5826-shield-ai-san-diego-2sk7ds4tbd3f) — San Diego, CA
- [Senior Staff Engineer, Systems Integration (R5415)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-engineer-systems-integration-r5415-shield-ai-san-diego-52459eswjfqm) — San Diego, CA
- [Senior Director, Hivemind Operations & Sustainment (R5855)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-hivemind-operations-sustainment-r5855-shield-ai-washington-gjnpmamw2pth) — Washington, DC
- [Senior Staff Engineer, System Architect (R5843)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-engineer-system-architect-r5843-shield-ai-san-diego-swcv39vpw9fv) — San Diego, CA
- [Simulation Specialist, India](https://feeny.ai/job/simulation-specialist-india-shield-ai-bengaluru-n5jfqvf03jy2) — Bengaluru, India
- [Sr Proposal Manager - Taiwan](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-proposal-manager-taiwan-shield-ai-taipei-g0ve6yymsprr) — Taipei, Taiwan
- [Staff Supplier Development Engineer - Mechanical (R5859)](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-supplier-development-engineer-mechanical-r5859-shield-ai-seattle-87hjxfj19x9j) — Seattle, WA