Electrical Engineering Spring Co-op, Shield AI
January 2026
$40 - $56 an hour + Equity + Bonus
Building AI aircraft pilots
Job no longer available
Building AI aircraft pilots
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$40 - $56 an hour + Equity + Bonus
1001+ employees
Company mission
To protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
Role
Who you are
- Have completed at least the 2nd year of a relevant degree. Typically, Electrical Engineering
- Strong technical fundamentals
- Have been part of an engineering team/club
- Experience with electrical design software and tools such as Altium, KiCAD, an oscilloscope, etc
- Demonstrated history of showing ownership of project outcomes and delivering exceptional results
- Record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others
What the job involves
- Shield AI is seeking an exceptional Co-op candidate to join the team in building our autonomous aircraft
- You will join a team of highly talented cross-functional engineers that exhibit a culture of mentorship, kindness, ownership, and hard work
- The start date and duration of the Internship/Co-op are flexible
- You will be given ownership of a project that is tailored to the start date, duration, and location of your Co-op
- Your work will directly contribute to the success of our novel aircraft development program. You will understand exactly why your project matters and how it ties into our critical path development objectives
- You will be partnered with a senior engineer as mentor and guide for technical input and professional development
- Examples of projects:
- Design a circuit board involving analog, digital, mixed signal, high speed circuits that enables us to test a prototype flight computer
- Design, simulate, and verify high voltage power electronics (>10kW) DC/DC Converters and DC/AC inverters
- Work with a senior engineer to bring-up and validate a new Avionics system
- Identify bugs and drive changes to fix them
- Build a test rack to deliver fully automated test coverage of a flight critical sub-system
- Run a HALT campaign to ensure a series of new circuit boards are highly reliable
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
- Gym Discount (San Diego)
- Onsite Gym (DC)
- Free Parking
- Competitive Compensation
- 401K Services and Match
- Stock Benefits
Company HQ
Core-Columbia, San Diego, CA
Leadership
Ryan Tseng
(Co-Founder & President)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
(Co-Founder & President)Naval Officer for the US Navy from 2009 to 2015.
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