About the role
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the 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 Senior Propulsion Engineer to serve as the propulsion SME for the V-BAT Fleet Support team. In this role, you will be the customer-facing engineering lead for escalated propulsion issues across the fielded fleet. You will act as the bridge between Fleet Support and the core propulsion, vehicle, manufacturing, and quality engineering teams to diagnose issues, drive root cause, and improve fleet reliability. This role is ideal for an engineer who combines strong propulsion fundamentals with practical field troubleshooting experience and a customer-first mindset. \n
What you'll do: Serve as the propulsion SME for Fleet Support and the primary engineering point of contact for propulsion-related escalations. Diagnose and resolve engine performance issues, including hard starts, unstable operation, power loss, thermal excursions, endurance degradation, and intermittent behavior. Troubleshoot engine mechanical and hardware issues, including vibration, wear, leaks, mounting or interface issues, actuator concerns, and component failures. Investigate fuel and oil system issues, including pressure, flow, filtration, contamination, venting, priming, lubrication, and thermal-management problems. Analyze flight data, maintenance records, teardown findings, and field reports to identify failure modes and define corrective actions. Develop troubleshooting procedures, inspection criteria, repair guidance, and return-to-service recommendations for Fleet Support personnel and customers. Partner with propulsion, air vehicle, quality, manufacturing, and supplier teams to drive permanent corrective actions and reliability improvements. Capture recurring fleet issues and translate them into engineering recommendations, service actions, and long-term design improvements. Required