You will be responsible for instructor development, training quality, operational readiness, curriculum standards, and customer satisfaction. This is a hands-on leadership position that requires close collaboration with customers, engineering, product, flight operations, business development, and other internal teams. The ideal candidate is an experienced training leader, an effective communicator, and a credible UAS professional who is comfortable operating in dynamic domestic and international environments.
What you’ll do:
- Lead, develop, and mentor a team of customer training professionals and UAV instructors.
- Establish team priorities, performance expectations, staffing plans, and professional-development pathways.
- Oversee the development and delivery of classroom, simulator, flight, maintenance, and scenario-based training for Shield AI products.
- Ensure training programs prepare customers to safely operate, maintain, deploy, and effectively employ Shield AI systems.
- Maintain high instructional standards through instructor qualification, observation, coaching, certification, and continuous evaluation.
- Lead the development and standardization of curricula, lesson plans, lecture materials, simulator scenarios, practical exercises, assessments, and supporting documentation.
- Ensure student training records, instructor qualifications, course materials, and program metrics remain current and accurate.
- Coordinate training schedules, aircraft, simulators, facilities, airspace, frequency management, personnel, and other operational resources.
- Communicate directly with customers and partner-force leadership regarding training requirements, student progress, operational readiness, and program outcomes.
- Build lasting customer relationships through continuous engagement, refresher training, and support for effective product utilization.
- Adapt training for students with varying technical abilities, operational backgrounds, cultural contexts, and levels of experience.
- Support domestic and international training events, including extended deployments when required.
- Deliver instruction and provide hands-on training support when mission or staffing needs require it.
- Partner with engineering, product, design, and flight-operations teams to incorporate customer and instructor feedback into product and training improvements.
- Support new-product validation, testing, field evaluations, and the development of training capabilities for new product releases.
- Collaborate with business-development and sales teams to demonstrate Shield AI products to prospective customers.
- Establish and monitor training-program metrics, identify performance gaps, and implement improvements that increase safety, consistency, scalability, and customer success.
- Ensure training activities comply with applicable company policies, safety requirements, security procedures, aviation regulations, and customer expectations.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
- Five or more years of experience in technical, aviation, military, or UAS training.
- Two or more years of experience leading instructors, training teams, or comparable operational teams.
- Demonstrated experience developing and delivering classroom, simulator, flight, maintenance, or scenario-based instruction.
- Working knowledge of UAS operations, flight and mission planning, aviation safety, and training operations.
- Ability and willingness to travel internationally up to 50%, including for extended periods when required.
- Strong written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Fluent in Ukrainian
- Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical and operational information to audiences with varying levels of experience.
- Experience managing multiple training events, resources, schedules, and customer requirements in a dynamic environment.
- Effective, highly logical problem-solver who remains focused on safety, learning outcomes, and customer success.
- Ability to work across organizational boundaries while maintaining a big-picture perspective and attention to operational details.
Preferred qualifications:
- Graduate degree in education, instructional design, aviation, engineering, business, or a related field.
- Significant UAS experience as a pilot in command, instructor, maintainer, or mission operator.
- More than 1,000 hours of UAS pilot-in-command experience.
- Experience instructing or operating Group 1–3 UAS.
- Former Ukrainian military service or comparable defense-sector experience.
- Strong understanding of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, allied defense organizations, and international partner-force environments.
- Tactical field experience and knowledge of small-unit tactics.
- Prior overseas training or operational experience.
- Experience managing training programs for international customers and working across cultural and language differences.
- Experience with content-authoring and presentation tools such as PowerPoint, Prezi, http://Beautiful.ai , Camtasia, or comparable platforms.
- Experience with learning-management systems and online training-authoring or delivery tools.
- Experience supporting product demonstrations, new-product testing, curriculum validation, or fielding of emerging technologies.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
- Five or more years of experience in technical, aviation, military, or UAS training
- Two or more years of experience leading instructors, training teams, or comparable operational teams
- Experience developing and delivering classroom, simulator, flight, maintenance, or scenario-based instruction
- Working knowledge of UAS operations, flight and mission planning, aviation safety, and training operations
- Ability and willingness to travel internationally up to 50%, including extended periods
- Strong written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills
- Fluency in Ukrainian
- Ability to communicate complex technical and operational information to audiences with varying experience levels
- Experience managing multiple training events, resources, schedules, and customer requirements
- Effective logical problem-solving focused on safety, learning outcomes, and customer success
- Ability to work across organizational boundaries while maintaining strategic perspective and operational detail
- Graduate degree in education, instructional design, aviation, engineering, business, or related field
- Significant UAS experience as a pilot in command, instructor, maintainer, or mission operator
- More than 1,000 hours of UAS pilot-in-command experience
- Experience instructing or operating Group 1-3 UAS
- Former Ukrainian military service or comparable defense-sector experience
- Understanding of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, allied defense organizations, and international partner-force environments
- Tactical field experience and knowledge of small-unit tactics
- Prior overseas training or operational experience
- Experience managing international customer training programs across cultural and language differences
- Experience with PowerPoint, Prezi, Beautiful.ai, Camtasia, or comparable content-authoring and presentation tools
- Experience with learning-management systems and online training-authoring or delivery tools
- Experience supporting product demonstrations, new-product testing, curriculum validation, or emerging technology fielding
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
Healthcare Strength — Company materials highlight comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with mental-health support and an EAP. Third-party benefits summaries also portray health coverage as a strong component of the package.
-
Retirement Support — Offerings include a 401(k) with employer matching, cited on the careers page and independent benefits directories. Multiple sources indicate a match exists, though exact formulas have varied over time and warrant confirmation.
-
Equity Value & Accessibility — Company communications describe equity for all full-time hires and stock benefits as part of total rewards. Independent listings also note company equity/RSUs as a standard element.
Shield AI Insights
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.
Gallery
Shield AI Teams
Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
.jpg)


