Staff Electrical Engineer, Shield AI
Power
$150.1-225.2k
+ Bonus + Equity
Building AI aircraft pilots
Be an early applicant
Building AI aircraft pilots
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
$150.1-225.2k
+ Bonus + Equity
501-1000 employees
Company mission
Shield AI's mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
Role
Who you are
- If you excel in cross-functional collaboration, thrive in fast-moving environments, and are passionate about pushing the limits of power system design, we want to hear from you
- You have a B.S. in Electrical Engineering or equivalent
- You have 5+ years of experience as an Electrical Engineer
- You are experienced with: circuit design, schematic capture, component selection, circuit testing, and debugging
- You have a demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others
- Familiarity with Altium or equivalent
What the job involves
- Shield AI is redefining autonomous aviation with cutting-edge AI and GPS/RF-denied navigation technologies. Now, we’re building a next-generation aircraft like no other—one that will push the boundaries of innovation and performance
- We’re looking for a Staff Power Engineer to provide technical leadership in the design, development, and delivery of high-performance power systems across our aircraft programs
- This is a high-ownership role where you will define architectures, mentor junior engineers, and ensure that our power electronics meet the rigorous demands of autonomous aviation
- Design Power Electronics: Design of HV and LV systems including:
- High-voltage and low-voltage power systems
- DC-DC converters, inverters, and motor controllers
- Battery, Battery management, power generation, and distribution
- Embedded safety and protection mechanisms
- Design across power ranges: Engineer solutions from <1 kW low-power systems to >10 kW high-power applications
- Full-cycle hardware development: Own the entire flow — concept, modeling, worst case analysis, schematic capture, simulation, prototyping, design reiteration for improving design maturity, testing and validation
- PCB ownership: Drive PCB layout and design with ECAD engineers, optimizing for power density, EMI, thermal, and manufacturability
- Design for Safety, Manufacturability and Reliability: Design robust systems keeping in mind best practices for safety, manufacturing and reliability
- Board Bring Up and Testing: Execute board bring up, verification, validation and HALT testing to meet rigorous aerospace reliability standards
- Cross-functional collaboration: Work closely with Mechanical, CAD, Embedded, Software, Production and various aircraft teams throughout the product lifecycle
- Design review leadership: Lead and contribute to cross-functional reviews ensuring robust, high-integrity engineering decisions
- Program execution: Manage project timelines, deliverables, and technical milestones to drive on-time, high-quality outcomes
Our take
Self-driving vehicles present enormous benefits for the transportation industry, with the potential to increase the safety and efficiency of cars, trucks, and commercial airlines. However, such technological innovation is less present within the military transportation sector, despite the benefits that AI piloting would produce for the operation of drones and aircraft.
Shield AI is developing Hivemind, an AI-driven pilot that can operate drones and aircraft autonomously, without needing GPS, communications, or pilots. In addition to navigation, the technology is also designed to facilitate indoor building clearance, integrated defense breaching, and has the ability to learn and autonomously execute aircraft missions.
Whilst similar AI-driven pilot software has begun to appear in Chinese military research programs, Shield AI's target is the US. By developing fully autonomous piloting integrations for any type of aircraft, the company aims to future-proof the US military without the need for bespoke aircraft design. It has generated massive amounts of funding to support continued scaling and R&D efforts.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 12 rounds)
Mar 2025
$240m
LATE VC
Oct 2023
$300m
SERIES F
Total funding: $1.0bn
Company benefits
- Excellent Medical Coverage
- Mental Health Employee Assistance Program
- Paid Parental Leave
- Pet Insurance
- Flexible Work Hours
- Work From Home Benefits
- Relaxed Dress Code
- Unlimited Snacks and Beverages
- Gym Discount (San Diego)
- Onsite Gym (DC)
- Commuter Benefits
- 401k services and match
- Stock Benefits
Company HQ
Marina, San Diego, CA
Leadership
Ryan Tseng
(CEO)Experience as CEO, CTO and Founder of WiPower from 2006 to 2010. Technical Lead for Wireless Power Program for Qualcomm from 2010 to 2013.
Brandon Tseng
(President)Naval Officer for the US Navy from 2009 to 2015.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 13 more jobs at Shield AI