{"id":118818,"url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat","title":"Sr Director Engineering, V-BAT","company":{"id":50,"name":"Shield AI","domain":"shield.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/shield-ai","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":61,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.803,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":76,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Dallas, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":250000,"max":380000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":380000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Configuration Management","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-13T06:12:20Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T12:56:57Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":65,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":65},"description":"Job Description:\nWe 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.\nThis 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.\nWhat you'll do:\nLeadership & Strategy\nBuild 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. \nDefine the engineering vision, technical strategy, and system architecture in alignment with the program roadmap, product line strategy, and long-term technology investments. \nServe 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. \nLead organizational planning, workforce strategy, and capability roadmap to support multiple concurrent development, test, and sustainment efforts. \nDrive cross-functional collaboration across engineering, flight test, operations, program management, supply chain, quality, and production to enable predictable, high-quality product delivery. \nTechnical Governance & Engineering Excellence\nEstablish and continuously improve engineering standards, technical governance, configuration management, documentation practices, and development processes (including CI/CD, automated testing, and modern DevOps practices). \nDrive 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. \nEnsure compliance with applicable aerospace standards, certification or airworthiness expectations, regulatory requirements, and company engineering policies. \nTeam Building\nAttract, hire, and retain top-tier talent across engineering disciplines, building scalable organizations capable of supporting current and future platforms. \nFoster a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, accountability, and high ownership. \nMentor and grow Directors, engineering managers, and technical leads to support scaling and program longevity. \nStakeholder & Executive Engagement\nReport regularly on progress, risks, and technical decisions to senior leadership, clearly articulating tradeoffs and investment recommendations. \nInterface with external partners, customers, and government stakeholders as needed to represent the engineering roadmap, technical strategy, and program status. \nSupport business development and capture activities by defining technical approaches, architectures, and execution plans for new opportunities. \nRequired qualifications:\nTypically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience. \nStrong technical background in one or more of: aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and avionics, propulsion, or closely related disciplines. \nExperience building and leading multidisciplinary engineering teams and organizations (including direct managers and technical leaders) across hardware, software, and systems. \nStrong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to manage and inspire cross-functional teams; excellent written and verbal communication skills. \nProven track record of successfully shipping products, showcasing the ability to navigate development cycles, overcome obstacles, and deliver high-quality solutions to meet project deadlines and customer expectations in a fast-paced environment.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4320,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":15,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Military Drones","Defense Manufacturing","Defense AI","Drone AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-13T06:12:20Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":2,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":132500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":34,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.562,"p_room":0.6,"age_days":64,"expected_fill_days":76,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:late","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":380000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T15:33:04Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":21080,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":50},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=50"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fshield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fshield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fshield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/shield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fshield-ai-sr-director-engineering-v-bat"}]}