Staff Engineer, Quality Assurance (R5358)

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 seeking a Quality Engineer to support the development, inspection, execution, and continuous improvement of the X-BAT program. This fast-paced role is responsible for ensuring weapons system hardware, assemblies, suppliers, manufacturing processes, test processes, and final products meet engineering requirements and quality standards. You will work closely with test operations, manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, program management, and suppliers to identify quality risks, resolve nonconformances, improve processes, and deliver reliable mission critical operations.

What you'll do:: Support quality planning, inspections, readiness, and acceptance activities for the weapons system and subsystems Review engineering drawings, specifications, work instructions, inspection plans, and acceptance criteria Develop and maintain quality documentation, including inspection plans, control plans, first article inspections, nonconformance reports, corrective actions, and quality records Lead root cause analysis and corrective/preventive action efforts for manufacturing defects, supplier issues, test failures, process/procedure failures, and any other quality concerns Support material review board activities, disposition of nonconforming material, and implementation of containment actions Work with manufacturing and engineering teams to build, process capability, and product reliability Analyze quality data, defect trends, performance, and escape rates to identify improvement opportunities Participate in supplier quality activities, including issue resolution, corrective actions, and quality flow-down requirements Ensure compliance with applicable aerospace, defense, customer, and internal quality requirements Promote a culture of safety, compliance, accountability, and continuous improvement Required qualifications:: Bachelor’s degree in science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (STEM), Quality Engineering or related field, or similar experience levels supporting developmental test operations. 5-10 years of experience with developmental and/or operational ground and flight test, unmanned/manned aircraft systems, aircraft integration, or aerospace systems engineering Experience in quality engineering, ground and flight test execution, maintenance, manufacturing engineering, supplier quality, production support, or aerospace hardware Ability to interpret engineering drawings, technical specifications, bills of materials, work instructions, and inspection requirements Proven experience with nonconformance management, root cause analysis, corre