Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. 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:
The Principal Material Review Board Engineer leads the development and execution of Material Review Board processes for fielded UAS platforms and related systems. This role is responsible for dispositioning nonconforming hardware, developing standard repair procedures, and establishing scalable repair governance processes for post-production, depot, and field sustainment operations.
This individual serves as a senior technical authority for repair development, nonconforming material disposition, returned material evaluation, production escape resolution, and sustainment repair governance. The role partners closely with responsible engineers, design engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality, supply chain, fleet support, sustainment engineering, and chief engineers to ensure repair dispositions protect structural integrity, safety, reliability, maintainability, configuration control, and fleet readiness.
The Principal MRB Engineer supports sustainment by driving technically sound, traceable, and repeatable dispositions for damaged components, field returns, production escapes, supplier nonconformances, and hardware issues that affect aircraft availability and customer support.
What you'll do:
- Establish and mature the Material Review Board process for post-production hardware, fielded assemblies, depot repairs, and sustainment-related nonconformances.
- Lead technical dispositions for nonconforming material, damaged hardware, returned components, field returns, production escapes, and repairable assemblies.
- Develop standard repair procedures, repair limits, inspection criteria, and disposition guidance for recurring hardware issues.
- Support returned material analysis, production quality deficiency reports, production escape investigations, and field hardware issue reviews.
- Partner with responsible engineers, design engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality, fleet support, supply chain, and chief engineers to ensure dispositions are technically sound and executable.
- Ensure MRB dispositions are documented, traceable, configuration-controlled, and aligned with engineering, quality, and sustainment requirements.
- Identify trends in nonconformances, supplier issues, manufacturing defects, field damage, repair escapes, and recurring hardware failures.
- Work with Failure Analysis, Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, and Root Cause and Corrective Action teams to resolve recurring hardware issues.
- Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Quality to improve inspection methods, acceptance criteria, repair execution, test processes, and production controls.
- Support supplier quality investigations when supplier parts, materials, or assemblies impact aircraft sustainment or fleet readiness.
- Provide technical input to corrective actions, product health reviews, repair governance reviews, and sustainment leadership updates.
- Help ensure hardware issues are resolved in a way that protects safety, quality, reliability, configuration discipline, customer support, and fleet readiness.
- Mentor engineers and cross-functional partners on MRB discipline, disposition quality, repair documentation, and sustainment repair governance.
Required qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience in Material Review Board, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, sustaining engineering, aerospace structures, aviation maintenance, hardware product support, or complex hardware sustainment.
- Demonstrated experience dispositioning nonconforming hardware, damaged components, returned material, production escapes, field failures, or repairable assemblies.
- Strong understanding of nonconforming material processes, MRB workflows, repair dispositions, inspection records, engineering documentation, and corrective action systems.
- Experience developing or approving repair procedures, rework instructions, inspection criteria, use-as-is dispositions, repair dispositions, or scrap/replacement recommendations.
- Strong technical judgment with the ability to evaluate hardware issues based on safety, structural integrity, reliability, maintainability, configuration impact, and fleet readiness.
- Experience working across engineering, quality, manufacturing, supply chain, fleet support, sustainment, and operations teams to resolve hardware issues.
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, inspection results, manufacturing records, repair records, and field evidence.
- Strong documentation discipline, including the ability to write clear technical dispositions, repair rationale, risk assessments, and corrective action inputs.
- Ability to operate independently as a principal technical IC and influence cross-functional decisions without direct authority.
- Ability to balance engineering rigor, quality requirements, configuration control, field urgency, and customer support needs.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with aviation, defense, aerospace manufacturing, unmanned systems, aircraft sustainment, depot repair, field repair, or deployed hardware systems.
- Experience with composite structures, metallic structures, bonded assemblies, fastened assemblies, avionics hardware, propulsion components, payload interfaces, or complex electromechanical assemblies.
- Familiarity with RCCA, FRACAS, PQDR, AS9100, configuration management, ECO/ECR processes, service bulletins, maintenance releases, or field retrofit execution.
- Experience supporting supplier quality investigations, production escape resolution, returned material analysis, depot repair development, or field repair governance.
- Experience building scalable MRB processes, repair governance mechanisms, standard repair libraries, or sustainment disposition workflows.
- Experience supporting military, government, international, or deployed aviation customers.
- Familiarity with ITAR, export-controlled technical data, controlled customer environments, or defense operational support.
- Active Secret or Top Secret clearance preferred.
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Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.