Software Engineering Manager, Hardware Test (X-BAT) (R6020)

Opening from US - X-BAT with ITAR exposure, S/SAR Clearance

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.

What You'll do:

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of software engineers supporting X-BAT avionics production test.

• Own the technical roadmap and execution for automated test stands, reusable test frameworks, station software, and test-data systems.

• Build scalable Python-based software for test sequencing, instrument and fixture control, unit-under-test communication, measurement collection, pass/fail evaluation, and reporting.

• Guide software architecture, code quality, configuration management, CI/CD, release processes, documentation, and operational support.

• Partner closely with electrical engineers to translate avionics interfaces, functional requirements, and failure modes into automated test coverage.

• Partner with mechanical engineers to ensure fixtures, cabling, connectors, serviceability, safety, and operator workflows support reliable production testing.

• Work with FPGA and embedded-software teams to configure, communicate with, and validate FPGA-enabled avionics hardware.

• Improve test coverage, station uptime, throughput, failure triage, test repeatability, and traceability.

• Establish metrics and processes for regression health, station reliability, first-pass yield, retest rate, false failures, and recurring failure modes.

• Support root-cause analysis across the unit under test, fixture, instrumentation, test software, embedded software, FPGA behavior, and electrical interfaces.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, test automation, embedded systems, hardware-integrated software, manufacturing test, avionics, aerospace, robotics, automotive, industrial systems, or similar fields.

• 2+ years of direct people-management experience leading software, test, or hardware-integration engineers.

• Demonstrated experience building, deploying, and sustaining automated functional-test systems for complex hardware.

• Strong Python experience, particularly for automation frameworks, hardware communication, instrument control, data acquisition, and test orchestration.

• Experience with C++ or C in embedded, systems, device-control, or hardware-facing applications.

• Experience working directly with electrical hardware, test fixtures, instrumentation, and devices under test.

• Familiarity with FPGA-enabled hardware and the ability to work effectively with FPGA engineers on system-level test and debug.

• Familiarity with common interfaces and protocols such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, UDP, serial, CAN, SPI, I2C, USB, GPIO, PCIe, or JTAG.

• Experience with Git, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, release management, and configuration control.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively across software, electrical, mechanical, manufacturing, and program teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing automated production test equipment for avionics, aerospace, defense, autonomous systems, robotics, or other mission-critical hardware.

• Experience designing reusable test frameworks rather than only writing one-off test scripts.

• Experience with programmable power supplies, electronic loads,, DAQ systems, digital I/O, network equipment, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or custom test fixtures.

• Experience with FPGA programming, bitstream management, register-level control, JTAG, board bring-up, or FPGA-adjacent debug.

• Experience with embedded Linux, microcontrollers, board-support packages, device drivers, or real-time systems.

• Experience with production traceability, serial-number tracking, test-result databases, calibration workflows, manufacturing systems, or quality systems.

• Experience in a regulated, safety-critical, mission-critical, or configuration-controlled engineering environment.