- Robot type
- Drone · Defense
- Location
- SeattleWashingtonUSA
- Job type
- Hardware
- Posted
- Sep 14, 2026
- Salary
- $175,000–$263,000 a year
Full-time
Staff Engineer, Propulsion (R5899)
Job description
Shield AI — Staff Engineer, Propulsion (R5899) (Seattle, Washington).
Job responsibilities
- Serve as the Responsible Engineer for assigned propulsion hardware or capabilities from requirements through procurement, build, test, flight, and operational deployment.
- Own engine performance and integration activities, including requirements, interfaces, operability, transient behavior, performance margins, and vehicle-level impacts.
- Lead technical design reviews, supplier engagements, and hardware procurement while ensuring propulsion hardware meets performance, thermal, structural, reliability, and mission requirements.
- Plan and execute propulsion testing, including instrumentation, procedures, data acquisition, performance validation, and test-to-flight readiness.
- Analyze ground and flight data to understand engine behavior, quantify margin, identify anomalies, and drive design, control, or operational improvements.
- Lead failure investigations and root cause efforts using analysis, inspection, testing, and data to develop effective corrective actions.
- Work hands-on with design engineers, technicians, controls, fluids, airframe, manufacturing, supply chain, test, and flight teams to integrate and iterate propulsion hardware.
- Mentor less experienced engineers and technicians and help strengthen engineering practices across the propulsion team.
Job requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
- 7+ years of experience in aerospace propulsion development, integration, test, or flight operations, with demonstrated ownership of complex aerospace hardware.
- Strong understanding of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, compressible flow, and gas turbine engine performance, including thrust generation, fuel consumption, operability, and transient response.
- Hands-on experience with propulsion hardware integration, instrumentation, testing, flight support, and technical failure investigations.
- Strong proficiency in Python or similar tools for engineering analysis, data reduction, and model correlation.
- Demonstrated ability to independently drive ambiguous technical problems to measurable results in a fast-paced development environment.
- U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain security clearance.
- Experience with fighter-class, low-bypass turbofan, afterburning, or other high-performance gas turbine engines.
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