Senior Engineer, Material Review Board (R5309)

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. 

The Material Review Board (MRB) Engineer supports the evaluation and disposition of nonconforming hardware for fielded unmanned aircraft systems and related equipment. This role works within established engineering, quality, and configuration-control processes to assess damaged or nonconforming parts, develop repair and rework instructions, and help return hardware to service safely and efficiently.The engineer partners with responsible engineers, design and manufacturing engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Fleet Support, and Sustainment to investigate hardware issues and develop clear, technically sound, and traceable dispositions. The role supports post-production, depot, and field sustainment activities and contributes to improvements in repair documentation, inspection criteria, and recurring-issue resolution.

This is a hands-on individual-contributor role for an engineer who can independently resolve routine and moderately complex issues, contribute to more complex evaluations, and escalate decisions requiring specialized analysis or higher-level technical approval.

Evaluate nonconforming material, damaged hardware, returned components, production escapes, field returns, and repairable assemblies.

Develop and document dispositions such as rework, repair, use-as-is, return-to-vendor, or scrap recommendations in accordance with established approval authority.

Create or update repair instructions, inspection criteria, and supporting technical documentation.

Review engineering drawings, specifications, inspection results, manufacturing records, repair history, photographs, and other field evidence.

Coordinate with responsible engineers and cross-functional partners to ensure dispositions are safe, technically sound, executable, and properly approved.

Support returned-material evaluations, production-quality deficiency reviews, field-hardware investigations, and production-escape resolution.

Maintain complete, accurate, traceable, and configuration-controlled MRB records.

Identify recurring nonconformances, manufacturing defects, supplier issues, field damage, and repair challenges; elevate trends for further investigation.

Provide technical input to root-cause and corrective-action activities in partnership with Failure Analysis, Reliability and Maintainability, Quality, and other engineering teams.

Work with Manufacturing Engineering and Quality to improve repair instructions, inspection methods, acceptance criteria, and test processes.

Support supplier-quality investigations when purchased parts or assemblies affect sustainment or fleet readiness.

Contribute to standard repair development and the continuous improvement of MRB and sustainment workflows.

Balance engineering rigor, safety, quality, configuration control, field urgency, and aircraft-readiness needs.

Bachelor's degree in mechanical, aerospace, electrical, manufacturing, materials, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent relevant technical experience.

4+ years of relevant experience in Material Review Board, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, sustaining engineering, aerospace structures, aviation maintenance engineering, hardware product support, or complex hardware sustainment.

Experience evaluating nonconforming hardware, damaged components, returned material, production escapes, field failures, or repairable assemblies.

Working knowledge of nonconforming-material processes, MRB workflows, repair or rework dispositions, inspection records, engineering documentation, and corrective-action systems.

Experience developing or supporting repair instructions, rework instructions, inspection criteria, use-as-is evaluations, or scrap/replacement recommendations.

Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, inspection results, manufacturing records, repair records, and field evidence.

Sound technical judgment and the ability to recognize when an issue requires additional analysis or escalation to the appropriate engineering authority.

Strong written communication and documentation skills, including the ability to clearly explain a technical disposition and its supporting rationale.

Ability to work effectively across Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Fleet Support, Sustainment, and Operations.

Ability to manage multiple hardware issues and priorities in a fast-paced operating environment.

Experience in aviation, defense, aerospace manufacturing, unmanned systems, aircraft sustainment, depot repair, field repair, or deployed hardware systems.

Experience with composite or metallic structures, bonded or 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, returned-material analysis, production-escape resolution, depot repair, or field repair.

Familiarity with standard repair libraries or configuration-controlled repair documentation.

Experience supporting military, government, international, or deployed aviation customers.

Familiarity with ITAR, export-controlled technical data, or controlled customer environments.

Active Secret or Top Secret clearance.