Staff Hardware Recruiter (R3970)

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With nine offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the 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. 

We’re looking for an experienced Hardware Recruiter to join our Talent Acquisition team and lead full-cycle hiring efforts for our Electrical and Mechanical Engineering teams within our Aircraft Engineering department. In this role, you’ll partner closely with technical leaders across avionics, flight hardware, and mechanical design & integration to identify, engage, and hire world-class engineers building next-generation aerospace and autonomous systems.

This is an opportunity to own the entire recruiting process — from market mapping and sourcing through offer negotiation — in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment where hardware innovation meets autonomy.

• Manage full-cycle recruitment for Electrical, Mechanical, and cross-disciplinary hardware roles across multiple programs.
• Partner with hiring managers and engineering leadership to define role requirements, hiring strategies, and interview processes.
• Proactively source top hardware engineering talent from both traditional aerospace and adjacent industries (autonomous vehicles, robotics, defense, etc.).
• Build and maintain strong candidate pipelines for critical and niche hardware roles.
• Drive exceptional candidate experience from first outreach to close.
• Leverage data and recruiting metrics to advise stakeholders and continuously improve processes.
• Collaborate with People Ops and HRBPs on offer strategy, leveling, and compensation alignment.
• Represent the company at technical events, conferences, and university programs to strengthen brand awareness.

• 5+ years of technical recruiting experience, including full-cycle ownership of hardware or systems engineering roles.
• Proven success hiring in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related hardware domains.
• Experience recruiting within aerospace, defense, robotics, or autonomous systems industries strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of hardware product lifecycles — from concept and design to integration and production.
• Comfortable sourcing highly specialized talent (e.g., RF, power systems, PCB design, test & validation, structures, or propulsion).
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; confident advising technical leaders and executives.
• Passion for recruiting in a high-growth, mission-oriented environment.

• Prior experience with tools like Lever, HireZ, and/or ModernLoop
• Experience with hardware recruiting in both startup and large-scale environments.
• An engineering or technical background (or curiosity about how things work!).

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.