Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. 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:
Join a high-impact quality engineering team driving reliability, validation, and execution excellence across next-generation autonomous systems. This role partners across engineering, test, manufacturing, and program leadership to ensure quality objectives are embedded throughout the product lifecycle. You will lead cross-functional quality initiatives by managing validation efforts, driving issue resolution, tracking technical risk, and improving engineering execution through data-driven program management.
We are seeking a Quality Engineering Technical Program Manager (TPM) with experience leading complex hardware or aerospace quality programs, including validation planning, root cause analysis, reliability tracking, and cross-functional execution.
What you'll do:
Lead cross-functional quality engineering programs spanning validation, integration, manufacturing readiness, and field reliability
Drive issue triage, root cause investigations, corrective actions, and closure tracking for system-level failures
Develop and manage quality plans, schedules, metrics, and risk tracking across engineering teams
Coordinate verification and validation activities across hardware, software, manufacturing, and test organizations
Partner with engineering leadership to improve release readiness, defect reduction, and development processes
Analyze quality and reliability trends to identify systemic issues and improve product performance
Required qualifications:
3+ years of experience in technical program management, quality engineering, systems engineering, or validation leadership in complex hardware or aerospace environments
Strong understanding of root cause analysis, corrective actions, and reliability tracking
Proven ability to lead cross-functional programs across engineering, manufacturing, and test organizations
Experience managing technical risk, program dependencies, and execution tradeoffs in fast-paced development programs
Strong analytical, communication, and organizational skills with the ability to drive alignment and accountability across teams
Preferred qualifications:
Experience supporting aerospace, defense, robotics, or autonomous systems programs
Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, or regulated engineering environments
Experience with reliability testing, systems integration, or manufacturing quality
Experience using data and automation tools such as Python, SQL, Jira, Power BI, or Tableau to improve quality visibility and execution
