Staff Engineer, Manufacturing Equipment

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 .

Job Description:

We are seeking a Staff Equipment Engineer to lead the development, sustainment, and improvement of production equipment, test racks, and test cells supporting manufacturing and system-level testing. This role is highly hands-on and works closely with Manufacturing, Test, Quality, and Design Engineering teams to ensure equipment reliability, scalability, and readiness for production. The ideal candidate has deep experience supporting complex electromechanical equipment in a production environment and driving improvements across safety, uptime, and throughput.

What you'll do:

• Own the technical lifecycle of production equipment, test racks, and test cells, from production readiness through sustainment and continuous improvement
• Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis of equipment failures, downtime events, and test anomalies; implement corrective and preventive actions
• Drive equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) improvements to support production goals
• Develop and maintain equipment documentation including schematics, BOMs, calibration plans, maintenance procedures, and operating instructions
• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Test, and Quality teams to ensure equipment meets production, safety, and compliance requirements
• Support equipment upgrades, obsolescence management, and capacity expansion as production scales
• Define and execute equipment acceptance testing, validation, and handoff to production
• Mentor junior engineers and technicians and provide technical leadership across equipment-related efforts
• Manage external vendors and integrators as needed for equipment design, build, or modification

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field
• 8+ years of experience supporting production equipment, test racks, or test cells in a manufacturing or test environment
• Strong hands-on experience with electromechanical systems, controls, instrumentation, and data acquisition
• Proven ability to troubleshoot complex equipment issues across hardware, software, and controls domains
• Experience developing and maintaining technical documentation for production equipment
• Ability to work effectively on the factory floor and in cross-functional engineering teams

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience supporting automated or semi-automated production and test equipment
• Familiarity with PLCs, HMIs, industrial networks, or test software (e.g., LabVIEW, Python, or similar)
• Experience with equipment safety standards, lockout/tagout, and risk assessments
• Background in scaling equipment from prototype or low-rate production to higher-rate manufacturing
• Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical projects without direct authority

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