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:
Lead the execution of complex manufacturing programs that bring advanced products from concept to production. In this role, you will drive cross-functional alignment across engineering, supply chain, and operations, ensuring plans, resources, and readiness come together to meet critical milestones. You’ll play a key role in turning strategy into reality—removing obstacles, maintaining momentum, and enabling teams to deliver at scale.
What you'll do:
Own manufacturing program outcomes end-to-end. Build and drive the integrated manufacturing program plan (WBS/IMS), manage critical path and cross-functional dependencies, and take full accountability for hitting build and ramp milestones—not just reporting status.
Operate as the execution engine across functions. Lead day-to-day coordination across Production, Manufacturing Engineering, MP&L, Supply Chain, Quality, Test, Facilities, Construction, and Engineering aligning priorities, resolving friction, and ensuring no workstream drifts.
Move fast to unblock reality. Identify bottlenecks early (design maturity, supplier lead times, tooling delays, facility readiness, material constraints) and aggressively drive mitigation plans to closure. Escalate when necessary but default to solving laterally and decisively.
Translate engineering intent into manufacturing action. Turn evolving product development plans and engineering releases into structured readiness gates, executable build plans, and clearly defined entry/exit criteria from prototype through pilot and production ramp.
Drive manufacturing readiness with urgency. Ensure tooling, equipment, routings, work instructions, materials, inspection/test capability, facilities, and workforce readiness are aligned ahead of builds closing gaps before they impact the floor.
Own change impact management. Coordinate ECR/ECO cut-ins, retrofit strategies, and configuration alignment to protect schedule, build integrity, and production flow.
Run a disciplined operating cadence. Lead weekly cross-functional reviews, maintain risk and issue registers, drive action tracking with clear owners and deadlines, and provide crisp executive updates that highlight tradeoffs and required decisions.
Integrate facilities and equipment milestones. Embed construction, utilities, equipment installation, and commissioning into the program plan ensuring space and infrastructure readiness never become the critical path surprise.
Stay close to the floor. Be present where execution happens rapidly translating real-world constraints into plan updates and actionable cross-functional decisions.
Continuously raise the bar. Improve program management standards, tools, readiness frameworks, and execution rhythms to make future manufacturing programs faster, more predictable, and more scalable.
Required qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in mechanical / aerospace Engineering, or related field.
Significant experience in aerospace or advanced manufacturing, with 5+ years in program leadership roles.
Proven success in facility or production program setup, especially in a startup or high-growth environment.
Strong background in program execution and operational planning across engineering and manufacturing domains.
Preferred qualifications:
Master’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Systems, or Operations Management.
Experience leading cross-functional teams in aerospace or defense industries.
Demonstrated ability to deliver production facilities and new program manufacturing readiness on aggressive timelines.
Familiarity with new product introduction (NPI) and manufacturing systems planning at scale.
Greenfield facility development experience.
