Shield AI is seeking a Manager, Autonomy Applications Engineering to lead a team of Forward Deployed Engineers supporting customer deployment, adoption, and operational success with the Hivemind SDK. This is a highly technical, customer-facing leadership role focused on enabling the team to deliver excellent on-site customer support, deployment execution, and success in real-world environments. The manager will own team performance, customer outcomes, and the flow of actionable field feedback back into the company.
In this role, you will manage, coach, and develop Forward Deployed Engineers who work directly with customer operators, engineers, and technical stakeholders to support onboarding, deployment, troubleshooting, and sustained use of Hivemind. You will help the team navigate complex technical environments, translate mission and program goals into concrete technical milestones, and drive progress during active engagements. You will also partner closely with internal engineering, product, Applications Engineering, and program teams to improve customer readiness, product usability, deployment playbooks, and long-term customer success.
This role includes up to 30% travel, including frequent customer site visits and oversight of active customer engagements.
What you'll do:
- Lead, manage, mentor, and develop a team of Forward Deployed Engineers responsible for customer deployments and technical customer success
- Own team planning, prioritization, staffing, and execution for on-site and virtual customer engagements
- Provide technical leadership for customer onboarding, deployment, adoption, and operational success with the Hivemind SDK
- Serve as an escalation point and trusted technical leader for customers using Hivemind in real-world environments
- Translate customer goals, mission needs, and program objectives into clear technical milestones, execution plans, and team priorities
- Drive accountability across the team for achieving intended customer outcomes during active engagements
- Guide the team through debugging and resolution of complex software and integration issues
- Partner with customer teams and internal stakeholders to remove blockers, improve time-to-value, and sustain adoption
- Build mechanisms to collect, synthesize, and communicate recurring customer pain points, product gaps, and field insights to internal teams
- Represent the voice of the customer in internal planning and prioritization discussions
- Collaborate with product and engineering teams to improve product quality, usability, deployment readiness, and repeatable field execution
You should apply if:
- You enjoy leading technical teams while staying close to customers and field execution
- You are energized by coaching engineers through dynamic on-site challenges in real operational contexts
- You can translate ambiguous customer needs into structured technical plans, team priorities, and measurable outcomes
- You are comfortable making decisions, removing blockers, and helping a team drive progress under pressure
- You have strong engineering fundamentals and can build credibility quickly with technical stakeholders, customers, and direct reports
- You enjoy working across engineering, product, and customer teams to improve both product outcomes and customer success
- You are passionate about or have great interest in autonomy, robotics, aerospace, defense technology, or deploying advanced software in the field
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
- 8+ years of relevant technical experience in software engineering, deployment engineering, solutions engineering, applications engineering, or forward deployed engineering
- 2+ years of people management or formal technical leadership experience for engineers
- Experience in a customer-facing technical leadership role such as forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, applications engineering, or customer engineering
- Strong technical background in software engineering, including the ability to review and debug complex systems and guide technical tradeoffs
- Strong proficiency with modern C++ and experience with Python in a professional setting
- Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal, coaching, and people leadership skills
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with sound judgment under pressure
- Ability to operate with a high degree of autonomy and accountability in ambiguous environments while leading a team through ambiguity
- Ability to travel up to 30%
Preferred qualifications:
- 3+ years of experience working in a startup environment
- Experience managing or leading teams in the defense, robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems industry
- Experience building or scaling a forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, applications engineering, or customer engineering function
- Experience gathering field feedback, influencing product direction based on customer needs, and establishing repeatable customer success playbooks
Why join Shield AI:
- Help build the defining defence technology company of this century.
- Work at the forefront of AI, autonomy, and next-generation defence systems.
- Operate in a highly entrepreneurial and mission-driven environment.
- Make a direct impact on international growth and strategic defence partnerships.
- Collaborate with exceptional teams solving some of the world’s most complex operational challenges.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical field
- 8+ years relevant technical experience in software, deployment, solutions, applications, or forward deployed engineering
- 2+ years of people management or formal technical leadership experience for engineers
- Experience in a customer-facing technical leadership role (forward deployed, solutions, applications, or customer engineering)
- Strong technical background in software engineering; ability to review and debug complex systems and guide tradeoffs
- Strong proficiency with modern C++
- Professional experience with Python
- Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal, coaching, and people leadership skills
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills with sound judgment under pressure
- Ability to operate with high autonomy and accountability in ambiguous environments
- Ability to travel up to 30%
- 3+ years startup experience
- Experience managing or leading teams in defense, robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems
- Experience building or scaling a forward deployed/solutions/applications/customer engineering function
- Experience gathering field feedback and establishing repeatable customer success playbooks
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage includes medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support, with company materials describing excellent coverage. Feedback suggests these offerings are comprehensive and consistently highlighted across official and third-party benefit lists.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full-time hires, with RSU structures and tools like Carta Tax intended to improve understanding and tax timing. Feedback suggests this broad-based ownership approach is a notable component of total rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Benefits include paid parental leave, fertility support, childcare benefits, family medical leave, and onsite resources such as a Mother's Room. Feedback suggests the family-oriented offerings are more expansive than basic coverage.
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.
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
