Sr. Staff Engineer, Supply Chain - Mechanical Commodities (R6524)

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 .

About the role

Shield AI is looking for a highly skilled, motivated Supplier Development Engineer to lead the technical development, industrialization, and performance improvement of suppliers for critical mechanical commodities. These include precision-machined components, airframe structures, landing gear, composites and propulsion/engine hardware.

You'll be the main technical interface between suppliers and Shield AI's Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Program teams. You'll solve supplier problems that affect quality, on-time delivery, and scaling. You'll onboard suppliers to new designs and lead them through qualification and production ramp-up. This work is central to our mission of delivering affordable, autonomous mass at scale.

The role involves a lot of travel, up to 50%, including regular trips internationally to develop and build the supply base there.

What You'll Do:

Supplier development and capability assessment

Lead technical development and performance improvement for precision machining, airframe structures, landing gear, composites and propulsion/engine hardware.

Assess supplier technical capabilities, manufacturing processes, capacity, quality systems, tooling, workforce, and readiness for prototy