Staff Engineer, Aircraft Thermal Systems - Ranger (R6351)

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.

Thermal System Ownership: Define and mature aircraft-level thermal environments and thermal management solutions for vehicle bays, hot surfaces, and other thermal-critical installations. Thermal Analysis and Modeling: Perform first-principles heat transfer and fluid mechanics calculations, then develop analytical, finite-difference, and CFD models to characterize conduction, convection, radiation, and coupled thermal-fluid behavior. Cooling System Design: Design and evaluate active and passive cooling solutions, including heat-rejection paths, airflow, ducting, thermal interfaces, and hardware needed to manage vehicle thermal loads. Requirements and Risk Management: Generate thermal requirements, assess technical risks, and develop actionable design recommendations that balance thermal performance with vehicle power, mass, volume, maintainability, and integration constraints. Vehicle and Hardware Integration: Develop thermal hardware layouts and CAD models, and resolve interfaces with structures, avionics, fluid systems, EWIS, and adjacent mechanical systems. Test and Validation: Define qualification and verification test plans, design test rigs, support instrumentation and data acquisition, and correlate analytical and computational models with test data. Hardware and Supplier Execution: Author technical specifications and statements of work for thermal hardware, evaluate suppliers, and drive supplier technical execution through prototype build and test. Qualification and Hardware Delivery: Define and execute qualification test plans per MIL-STD-810, using results to mature the design into production-ready hardware and support MIL-HDBK-516 Airworthiness Certification. Technical Leadership: Communicate thermal findings through design reviews and technical reports, guide cross-disciplinary teams in applying thermal and fluid fundamentals, and influence vehicle-level thermal design decisions.

Clearance required: US Citizens Only & Must have an Active Secret or higher clearance. Experience: 7 to 12 years of direct experience in aerospace thermal engineering, environmental control systems, or vehicle thermal and fluid system development. Education: B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline. Core Fundamentals: Deep mastery of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics applied to aircraft or defense systems. Modeling and Analysis: Demonstrated capability with first-principles hand calculations, finite-difference methods, and CFD or thermal-analysis tools such as FloEFD, STAR-CCM+, Thermal Desktop, or equivalent. Thermal System Design: Demonstrated ability to design active and passive cooling solutions and manage thermal environments for aircraft bays, engine bays, hot surfaces, or comparable aerospace installations. CAD and PLM: Experience in 3D CAD modeling, thermal hardware layout, routing, and drawing release with Siemens NX, CATIA, Creo, SolidWorks, or equivalent PLM workflows. Hardware and Supplier Execution: Proven track record sourcing COTS/custom aerospace components, driving suppliers to schedule, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups. Autonomy: Demonstrated ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks without oversight, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines.

Experience with high-altitude aircraft thermal management, analysis, and design. Hands-on experience with thermal and fluid system testing, instrumentation, data acquisition, and validation. Knowledge of materials and manufacturing methods relevant to aerospace thermal management. Background in multi-disciplinary system integration spanning avionics, fluid systems, and systems engineering. Familiarity with aerospace environmental and airworthiness requirements and test standards, including MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-310, RTCA DO-160, and SAE AIR or ARP standards.