A major focus of this role will be shaping the next generation of AI-native and agent-driven workflows across the autonomy lifecycle. As Hivemind evolves from traditional software tooling toward AI-assisted autonomy development, simulation, evaluation, deployment, and operations, this leader will help invent entirely new ways for users to collaborate with AI systems, agents, and foundation-model-powered tools. The ideal candidate has deep experience designing AI products, developer platforms, or complex technical systems and can translate emerging AI capabilities into workflows that dramatically improve user productivity and outcomes.
This is a highly hands-on role as this leader will manage a team of elite designers. During the first 6–12 months, most of the time will be spent conducting user research, designing experiences, prototyping concepts, facilitating product discovery, and partnering directly with Product and Engineering teams to define the future of autonomy development.
What you'll do:
- User Research & Product Discovery
- Lead customer research efforts across product development, customer engagement, and solutions teams to identify pain points, workflows, unmet needs, and product opportunities.
- Establish scalable mechanisms for gathering, synthesizing, and communicating user insights throughout the product development lifecycle.
- Translate customer and operational feedback into actionable product recommendations, requirements, and design initiatives. Product Design & User Experience
- Design end-to-end workflows across autonomy development, simulation, testing, analysis, deployment, and operations.
- Create intuitive experiences for highly technical users including autonomy engineers, software developers, operators, and mission planners.
- Simplify complex system architectures, data flows, infrastructure tooling, and AI workflows into understandable user experiences.
- Own the end-to-end experience of the product including training, documentation, tutorials, and overall workflows – help our users get the most of the product. Strategic Product Leadership
- Partner closely with Product Managers to shape product vision, roadmap priorities, and go-to-market strategies.
- Drive alignment across Product, Engineering, Design, and Executive Leadership through compelling narratives, prototypes, and visual storytelling.
- Advocate for user-centered decision making in a highly technical and engineering-driven environment. Design Practice, Systems & Organizational Scale
- Establish and evolve design standards, design systems, UX principles, and product design best practices across Shield AI.
- Raise the quality bar for product design, usability, consistency, and customer experience.
- Grow the product design function by mentoring a small team of designers, shaping design culture, and staying actively involved in critical design work.
- Champion design wins and impact across the organization, highlighting the important role design plays in delivering successful products. AI-Native Product Design & Agentic Workflows
- Define the future user experience for AI-assisted autonomy development, simulation, testing, deployment, and operational workflows.
- Design human-AI collaboration models that enable users to effectively leverage AI agents, copilots, and foundation-model-powered systems.
- Partner with Product, AI Research, and Engineering teams to create new interaction patterns for agent orchestration, autonomy generation, scenario creation, test generation, and mission planning.
- Develop frameworks for trust, transparency, explainability, and human oversight within AI-assisted workflows.
- Help establish industry-leading design patterns for Physical AI development platforms and agent-driven software systems.
Required qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience in Product Design, UX Design, Human Factors, or related fields.
- Proven track record designing and shipping complex technical products, developer tools, platforms, infrastructure software, data-dense applications, or enterprise systems.
- Deep technical fluency and ability to effectively collaborate with senior engineering leaders on architecture, technical constraints, and software development workflows.
- Strong experience conducting user research and translating insights into product strategy and design solutions.
- Proven ability to influence product direction and organizational decisions without direct authority.
- Strong understanding of AI-powered product experiences, including conversational interfaces, human-in-the-loop workflows, AI-assisted decision making, and agent-based systems.
- Experience defining new user experiences in ambiguous technology spaces where industry standards and workflows are still emerging.
- Experience building and retaining high-performing design teams.
- Strong portfolio showcasing both strategic thinking and hands-on design execution.
Preferred qualifications:
- Background designing developer platforms, SDKs, cloud infrastructure products, DevOps tooling, or engineering productivity tools.
- Direct work on AI/ML platforms, MLOps workflows, foundation-model-enabled products, copilots, or agentic systems.
- Familiarity with autonomy, robotics, simulation, digital twins, mission systems, physical AI, or related development workflows including testing, evaluation, deployment, and operations.
- Portfolio examples involving command-and-control systems, mission-planning interfaces, operational dashboards, or real-time decision-support tools.
- Ability to design across integrated hardware/software systems.
- Domain exposure to defense technology, aerospace, robotics, or other regulated, mission-critical, or high-consequence operational environments.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in Product Design, UX Design, Human Factors, or related fields
- Experience designing and shipping complex technical products, developer tools, platforms, infrastructure software, data-dense applications, or enterprise systems
- Deep technical fluency and ability to collaborate with senior engineering leaders on architecture, technical constraints, and software development workflows
- Experience conducting user research and translating insights into product strategy and design solutions
- Ability to influence product direction and organizational decisions without direct authority
- Strong understanding of AI-powered product experiences, conversational interfaces, human-in-the-loop workflows, AI-assisted decision-making, and agent-based systems
- Experience defining user experiences in ambiguous technology spaces with emerging standards and workflows
- Experience building and retaining high-performing design teams
- Strong portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking and hands-on design execution
- Experience designing developer platforms, SDKs, cloud infrastructure products, DevOps tooling, or engineering productivity tools
- Experience with AI/ML platforms, MLOps workflows, foundation-model-enabled products, copilots, or agentic systems
- Familiarity with autonomy, robotics, simulation, digital twins, mission systems, physical AI, or related development workflows
- Portfolio examples involving command-and-control systems, mission-planning interfaces, operational dashboards, or real-time decision-support tools
- Ability to design across integrated hardware and software systems
- Domain exposure to defense technology, aerospace, robotics, regulated environments, mission-critical systems, or high-consequence operations
What the Team is Saying
What We Do
At Shield AI, you won't wait years to see your work reach the field. You'll build hardware and software that operates in the real world right now, in the hands of the people who depend on it. Hivemind, our AI pilot, has been flying since 2018. It has flown more than 30 platforms, including an F-16, and it now sits under a U.S. Air Force production contract for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. When you write code or shape a system here, you contribute to technology with a proven flight record and a clear production future. V-BAT flies intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions with an operational record that stretches from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific. It delivers eyes where they matter most, in the most demanding conditions on earth. The teams behind it watch their work get tested where the stakes are real. X-BAT takes its first flight this year. It's an AI-piloted fighter that needs no runway, built to operate where traditional aircraft can't. Join now and you help shape a program at its earliest, most formative stage. That's the kind of ground-floor work that defines a career. Do the most impactful work of your life, on problems that matter. Autonomy at this level asks a lot of you. You'll take on problems in perception, planning, and control that few teams anywhere are equipped to solve. You'll work across disciplines, from aerospace and robotics to machine learning and systems engineering, alongside people who hold themselves to an exacting standard and expect the same from you. Our mission is clear: protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. That purpose runs through every decision, every design review, and every deployment. It's why the work here carries a weight you can feel. Ready to join our mission? Explore our open roles and find where you fit.
Why Work With Us
Founded in 2015 by a former Navy SEAL, Shield AI builds AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft. Veterans aren't an afterthought here, they're at every level. It's why the work carries weight: AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft flying real missions, from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, protecting service members and civilians.
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
