Staff Engineer, Test & Evaluation Engineer

Shield AI Shield AI · Defense · San Diego, CA +1 · X-BAT Engineering - System Engineering & Integrated Test

Staff Engineer, Test & Evaluation Engineer responsible for defining, planning, and executing integration testing phases for XBAT flight vehicles, subsystems, and ground support equipment, ensuring transition from design to flight/operational readiness.

What you'd actually do

  1. Responsible for bringing up vehicle through functional testing and delivering the fully operational aircraft to the customer.
  2. Define comprehensive functional, ground, and flight test plan.
  3. Responsible for setting up ground support equipment and executing tests.
  4. Scope and sequence all testing efforts.
  5. The successful candidate will lead a multi-disciplinary test team, manage complex testing facilities, ensure compliance with industry standards, and drive the transition of new products from design to flight/operational readiness.

Skills

Required

  • clean sheet design to first flight
  • test methodologies (e.g., DO-160, MIL-STD-810)
  • instrumentation
  • data acquisition systems
  • telemetry architecture
  • successfully managing a full lifecycle test campaign, from component-level testing through to system-level Qualification or Type Certification
  • Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
  • ability to present complex technical findings to executive leadership and external regulatory boards

Nice to have

  • Flight Test Experience
  • Test Director for experimental or certificated aircraft/spacecraft
  • test automation frameworks
  • data analysis tools (e.g., MATLAB, Python, LabVIEW, Minitab)
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance

What the JD emphasized

  • clean sheet design to first flight
  • test methodologies
  • data acquisition systems
  • telemetry architecture
  • full lifecycle test campaign
  • system-level Qualification
  • Type Certification
  • flight test