Mechanical Engineer I

Are you a curious and motivated engineer who wants to help develop state-of-the-art autonomous aircraft? Do you want to apply your engineering fundamentals to real hardware while learning from experienced teammates? Shield AI may be the place for you.

As a Mechanical Engineer on the Mechanisms team, you will help design, develop, and integrate mechanical systems for Shield AI's autonomous aircraft. Your work may focus on gearbox development and integration, including gears, shafts, bearings, housings, lubrication systems, and related interfaces.

You will complete well-defined engineering tasks with guidance from experienced engineers and work with internal and external partners to design, prototype, test, and release hardware. The role offers practical experience across the product-development lifecycle while helping the team meet its performance, schedule, and reliability goals.

What you'll do

• Support the design and integration of mechanical mechanisms for autonomous aircraft, potentially including gearboxes and other power-transmission systems
• Create and update 3D CAD models, engineering drawings, bills of materials, and interface documentation
• Complete defined design tasks such as component sizing, material selection, tolerance analysis, and mechanical packaging
• Perform foundational structural, kinematic, and machine-design calculations with guidance from senior engineers
• Assist with preliminary finite element analysis and document assumptions, methods, and results
• Support the selection and integration of gears, bearings, shafts, splines, seals, fasteners, and lubrication components
• Help build, inspect, test, and iterate prototype hardware for functionality, performance, and reliability
• Support pre-production builds, aircraft integration, and ground and flight testing
• Investigate well-defined technical issues, document findings, and contribute to root-cause and corrective-action activities
• Collaborate with mechanical, propulsion, electrical, avionics, flight-controls, manufacturing, and test teams
• Follow established engineering, configuration-management, and product-release processes
• Develop plans for assigned tasks, communicate progress and risks, and incorporate teammate feedback

Preferred qualifications

• Internship, student-team, research, or project experience involving aircraft, UAVs, robotics, automotive systems, or other mechanical products
• Coursework or project experience related to gearboxes, gearing, bearings, shafts, splines, seals, lubrication, or rotating machinery
• Familiarity with gear geometry, gear-train calculations, bearing selection, or mechanical power transmission
• Experience with NX or a similar production CAD platform
• Exposure to tolerance stack-ups, mechanical fits, and GD&T application
• Exposure to finite element analysis, including static, modal, buckling, or fatigue analysis
• Familiarity with MATLAB, Python, or other engineering analysis tools
• Hands-on machine-shop, fabrication, assembly, or inspection experience through professional, academic, or hobby activities
• Exposure to FMEA, design of experiments, root-cause analysis, or reliability testing
• Familiarity with additive manufacturing, machining, casting, forging, or other mechanical manufacturing processes
• Exposure to RTCA DO-160, MIL-STD-810, structural testing, vibration testing, or mechanism testing
• Ability to thrive in startup, R&D, or defense-innovation environments

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company focused on 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. Shield AI is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.