Supply chain
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 https://shield.ai/. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/shield-ai, X https://x.com/shieldaitech, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shield_ai, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Shield_AI.
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 prototype, development, qualification, and production programs.
- Run capability assessments, manufacturing readiness reviews, process audits, capacity analyses, and onsite evaluations.
- Work with Strategic Sourcing and Engineering to select suppliers that meet technical, quality, cost, schedule, and production-rate requirements.
- Identify, develop, and qualify new suppliers in Europe to grow the regional supply base.
Industrialization and new product introduction
- Lead industrialization: manufacturing planning, tooling readiness, process validation, capacity planning, qualification, and production ramp-up.
- Support new product introductions, prototype builds, engineering changes, and rate increases, making sure suppliers meet all quality and delivery requirements during development.
- Review drawings, specifications, GD&T, bills of material, special-process requirements, and statements of work with suppliers.
- Lead design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly discussions to improve producibility, lower cost, and shorten lead times.
- Review and approve process flows, manufacturing and inspection plans, control plans, PFMEAs, work instructions, and qualification documentation.
- Coordinate First Article Inspection under AS9102 and resolve FAI discrepancies and manufacturing nonconformances.
Quality, problem solving, and process improvement
- Audit and embed in core supplier processes to find opportunities to improve cost, lead time, and quality.
- Lead onsite root-cause investigations into defects, dimensional nonconformances, process variation, tooling issues, material shortages, and production constraints.
- Use structured root-cause and corrective-action methods, including 8D, 5-Why, fishbone, and fault-tree analysis.
- Apply lean manufacturing, process controls, mistake-proofing, yield improvement, cycle-time reduction, and production-flow improvements.
- Give suppliers technical guidance on part specifications, manufacturing processes and standards, and quality measures.
- Ensure compliance with AS9100, AS9102, engineering, configuration-control, special-process, and customer requirements.
Performance monitoring, capacity, and risk
- Track and analyze supplier delivery, quality, and cost metrics, and put corrective action and continuous improvement plans in place as needed.
- Evaluate capacity against current and future demand using cycle times, yield, equipment availability, staffing, tooling, and material flow.
- Create and manage measurable plans for technical development, production readiness, capacity recovery, and corrective action.
- Lead onsite supplier recovery and report progress, risks, and corrective actions to program and executive leadership.
- Watch performance trends to spot recurring issues, systemic risks, and improvement opportunities.
- Identify and reduce supply chain risk, including developing alternate sources for sole-source, long-lead, and flight-critical components.
Leadership
- Mentor Supplier Development, Supplier Quality, and Supply Chain team members.
- Lead cross-functional technical teams and improvement initiatives with limited oversight
Preferred Qualifications:
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- Active U.S. government SECRET clearance at hire.
- Experience with aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, advanced aerospace platforms, or defense programs.
- Direct supplier development for airframe structures, landing gear, turbine engines, propulsion, or other flight-critical mechanical hardware.
- Experience developing or managing suppliers in Europe.
- Industrialization and production ramp-up of newly designed aerospace components and systems.
- Complex machining, tight tolerances, special processes, and aerospace materials.
- Metallic and composite airframe experience, including tooling, layup, curing, bonding, machining, drilling, trimming, assembly, and inspection.
- Landing gear manufacturing knowledge: forgings, machining, heat treatment, surface finishing, hydraulics, and assembly.
- Engine and propulsion manufacturing knowledg