# Staff Engineer, Aircraft Thermal Systems (RX) (R6002) at Shield AI

- Company: Shield AI
- What the company does: Autonomy for the world. Backed by a16z.
- Company website: https://shield.ai
- Type: Startups (AI role)
- Level: Senior
- Location: Dallas, Texas
- Work setup: On-site
- Pay: $146K to $220K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-09-22
- Apply by: 2026-11-06
- Apply: https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/8f69a723-ebc7-47ab-89c3-30700bb7f00b
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/shield-ai-staff-engineer-aircraft-thermal-systems-rx-r6002/

## About the role

As a Staff (L4) Aircraft Thermal Systems Engineer, you will take full technical ownership of thermal analysis, design, and vehicle integration for a Group 5 UAV fighter aircraft. You will work from first principles to characterize aircraft-level thermal environments, evaluate heat-transfer pathways, develop cooling solutions, correlate analytical and computational models, and deliver robust thermal systems and hardware in a rapid-iteration development environment.

## What they're looking for

- 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

Tags: X-BAT Engineering - Mechanical