Senior Staff Engineer, Structures and Vibration

Job Description:

Shield AI is seeking a Senior Staff Structural Analysis & Vibration Engineer to serve as the structural and vibration subject-matter expert (SME) for V-BAT. V-BAT is a Group 3 vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system in production and deployed with customers worldwide.

You will be the structural technical authority for V-BAT. You will own system loads, stress and dynamics analysis, vibration requirements and testing, and weight optimization.

This is a high-impact, company-level role. You will develop and define system-level structural requirements, design criteria, analysis methods, and material allowables that will guide structural work across V-BAT. You will also mentor engineers in FEA and structural fundamentals.

This role is ideal for engineers with 12-15+ years of experience who have served as the structural lead or technical authority on an aircraft program.

What you'll do:

• Develop and maintain company structural standards, including design criteria, factors of safety and margin policy, analysis methods, material allowables, and joint design practices.
• Own V-BAT system loads, and define structural requirements for subsystems, components, and suppliers.
• Lead and perform static, stability, modal, dynamic, and fatigue analyses of V-BAT structures using hand calculations and FEA (Simcenter).
• Lead composite structural analysis and define composite design requirements.
• Serve as the bolted joint expert for the program.
• Own vibration and shock environments. Assess existing profiles and use measured flight data to develop defensible test requirements.
• Define and improve vibration test requirements and processes, from test planning through verification, validation, and model-to-test correlation.
• Lead a program-wide weight optimization review of existing designs, and analyze new designs for weight efficiency and material selection.
• Review structural analyses, test reports, and design review content, and present findings to engineering leadership and customers.
• Mentor engineers in FEA and structural fundamentals, and build the team's structural analysis capability.
• Provide structural guidance on design changes and production issues as needed

Required qualifications:

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of structural analysis experience on aircraft, UAS, or comparable complex system, including serving as a structural lead or technical authority.
• Experience creating structural design criteria, analysis methods, or engineering standards.
• Expert knowledge of structural mechanics and hand calculations, including strength, stability, fatigue, and structural dynamics.
• Expertise with FEA tools, preferably Siemens Simcenter (Nastran or Femap), or equivalents such as ANSYS or Abaqus.
• Significant experience analyzing composite aircraft structures and defining composite design requirements.
• Expert-level knowledge of bolted joint analysis and design.
• Hands-on experience with vibration and shock testing, including test planning, instrumentation, and data review, plus working knowledge of MIL-STD-810.
• Proven track record of mentoring engineers.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred qualifications:

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering.
• Experience as the lead structural engineer on a Group 2-5 UAS, rotorcraft, or VTOL aircraft.
• Experience deriving vibration environments from flight test data (PSD analysis, fatigue damage spectrum, test tailoring).
• Experience with modal testing and FEA model correlation.
• Experience leading structural weight reduction programs.
• Experience developing composite allowables (e.g., CMH-17) and knowledge of composite manufacturing processes.
• Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516, RTCA DO-160, and aircraft structural certification.
• Experience in startup or high-growth defense environments.