Staff Engineer, Mass Properties - Ranger (R6353)

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 .

Job Description:

As a Mass Properties Engineer for Ranger, you will play a critical role in the development and optimization of autonomous aircraft systems, ensuring precise mass properties tracking and analysis throughout the product lifecycle. Your expertise will support aircraft performance trade studies, loads development, structural analysis, cost analysis, and mission effectiveness evaluations. This role is essential in driving the success of Shield AI’s next-gen autonomous vehicles, ensuring they meet stringent weight, balance, and efficiency requirements.

What you'll do:

Lead and participate in system-level trade studies to optimize payload, propulsion, power distribution, thermal management, and flight dynamics.

Conduct mass properties estimation for early-stage designs, prototyping, and full-scale production.

Estimate, calculate, and verify weight, center of gravity, and inertia properties for components, assemblies, and complete aircraft systems.

Develop and refine analysis tools and methods for mass properties estimation and optimization.

Generate and maintain mass properties reports for engineering, manufacturing, and leadership teams.

Implement and execute mass properties verification tests to validate design assumptio