Senior Staff Engineer, Flight Control Actuation Systems - Ranger (R6327)
Seattle · USD 200,000-310,000 / year · Onsite · Posted Oct 18, 2026
At a glance
- Workplace
- Onsite
- Location
- Seattle
- Salary
- USD 200,000-310,000 / year
About the role
- Shield AI is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer for Flight Control Actuation Systems - Ranger to define, allocate, and own FCAS requirements and verification traceability matrices.
- This role involves designing and analyzing control surface actuation systems, driving control-law integration, and managing hardware qualification and delivery for aircraft systems.
Responsibilities
- Define, allocate, and own the FCAS requirements and verification traceability matrix.
- Design and analyze control surface actuation systems, including sizing, dynamic response, bandwidth, redundancy, and failure modes.
- Drive the control law-actuator interface with Flight Controls and Vehicle Management Systems, including actuator dynamics modeling and control surface authority requirements.
- Drive actuator power source architecture and load analysis with EPS and hydraulic systems leads, and resolve actuator heat-generation and local thermal-load interfaces with thermal management.
- Drive coordination of control surface hinge moments and actuator reaction loads with structures.
- Define and execute FCAS qualification test plans per MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810, using test results to mature qualified flight-control actuation hardware.
- Lead FCAS design-maturity and qualification-status reviews at SRR, PDR, and CDR.
Requirements
- 8 to 15 years in flight control actuation system design on fixed-wing aircraft.
- B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Proven track record sourcing COTS/custom aerospace components, driving suppliers to schedule, and assembling benchtop or vehicle-level test setups.
- Demonstrated ability to self-direct, prioritize technical tasks without oversight, and deliver functional hardware under tight timelines.
- Demonstrated experience with actuator dynamic performance analysis, including bandwidth, response, stability margins, failure mode analysis, and redundancy analysis.
- Experience coordinating with flight controls and VMS engineers on actuator-control law integration.
- Familiarity with MIL-HDBK-516 and MIL-STD-810 as applied to flight control actuation, and experience supporting SRR, PDR, and CDR on a DoD or fighter-class aircraft program.
Preferred qualifications
- Prior fighter or fighter-adjacent program experience, manned or unmanned.
- Unmanned or autonomous flight control experience, including the redundancy philosophy differences from manned aircraft.
- Experience with EMA or EHA control surface actuators.
- Secret clearance eligible.
Benefits
- Pay within range listed
- Bonus
- Benefits
- Equity
- Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment for temporary employees)
