The Hivemind Development Platform team seeks to improve the development velocity of Hivemind teams and customers by building the core tooling, package management, build systems, and developer workflows used across the Hivemind SDK ecosystem. This team owns the customer-facing developer experience for installing, building, packaging, releasing, and consuming Hivemind SDK components.
The team owns a standardized package manager built within Nix that is used to ship the SDK and enable customers to build their own packages against the SDK. This includes ownership of SDK package definitions, reproducible toolchains, target platforms, package distribution, developer environments, and the CLI experience. This also includes ownership of the licensing mechanism for developer seats and edge devices. The team also owns service-backed platform components including the build cluster service, telemetry and authentication services, and package hosting and distribution services. These services require clear operational ownership, reliability targets, observability, support workflows, and customer-facing expectations.
The Hivemind Development Platform Manager will lead this team as they work with product teams, internal engineers, and customers to identify friction in SDK development workflows and turn those needs into scalable product-facing platform features and self-service capabilities. These decisions impact all Hivemind SDK users, both internal and external. This manager will complement deep individual contributor expertise in build systems, packaging, licensing, and distributed systems by developing the operating model, processes, and service-readiness practices required to stand up and run these product components reliably.
What you'll do:
- Lead and grow the Hivemind Development Platform team - coach and develop engineers, manage performance, and foster a culture of technical excellence, user empathy, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Set strategic direction for the Hivemind developer platform, in partnership with Product, Architecture, Software Operations and engineering leadership.
- Own the developer platform roadmap, including SDK package management, Nix-based build infrastructure, developer environments, toolchains, target platforms, package distribution, and release workflows, including the operational readiness of service-backed components such as build clusters, package hosting, telemetry, authentication, and licensing.
- Own the customer-facing SDK developer experience, including how users install the SDK, activate licenses, pull packages, build their own packages, and integrate with supported target platforms.
- Drive cross-functional collaboration with Pilot, EdgeOS, Forge, SoftOps, and customer-facing teams to understand friction points and convert them into clear platform requirements.
- Oversee architecture decisions for the standardized Hivemind package manager, CLI, package repository services, toolchain definitions, and reproducible build environments with a practical understanding of distributed systems, service reliability, observability, and operational tradeoffs.
- Ensure the platform supports multi-language SDK development across C++, Python, Go, and TypeScript.
- Define metrics and signals for SDK developer productivity, package reliability, build reproducibility, release quality, and customer adoption.
- Represent the voice of SDK developers in engineering planning by championing ease-of-use, reproducibility, reliability, and clear ownership across the Hivemind ecosystem.
- Establish lightweight operational excellence practices for developer platform services, including ownership models, runbooks, monitoring and alerting, service-level expectations, incident response, escalation paths, and release readiness.
Required qualifications:
- 6+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, Developer Infrastructure, or equivalent engineering roles
- 2+ years of people leadership experience
- 3+ years of strong understanding of C++, Linux, CMake, build systems, and software packaging in production systems.
- Strong technical judgment and ability to guide architecture across complex multi-team systems
- B.S. or Master’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
- You are organized and methodical
- You have a demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others
Preferred qualifications:
- Deep experience with Nix, flakes, binary caches, remote builders, cross-compilation, or custom Linux target platforms
- Experience building production-ready developer tools, package managers, SDKs, CLIs, or artifact distribution systems from scratch
- Experience with Python, Go, TypeScript, or multi-language package ecosystems
- Experience with building production webservices
Skills Required
- 6+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, Developer Infrastructure, or equivalent engineering roles
- 2+ years of people leadership experience
- 3+ years strong understanding of C++, Linux, CMake, build systems, and software packaging in production systems
- Strong technical judgment and ability to guide architecture across complex multi-team systems
- B.S. or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Organized and methodical work habits
- Demonstrated record of teamwork, trustworthiness, high standards, and kindness
- Deep experience with Nix, flakes, binary caches, remote builders, cross-compilation, or custom Linux target platforms
- Experience building production-ready developer tools, package managers, SDKs, CLIs, or artifact distribution systems from scratch
- Experience with Python, Go, TypeScript, or multi-language package ecosystems
- Experience building production webservices
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials describe excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage alongside a mental‑health EAP. Site perks such as an onsite gym in DC and a gym discount in San Diego support a health‑focused offering.
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Retirement Support — Careers materials highlight a 401(k) with company match as part of the standard package. A Total Rewards overview emphasizes retirement features within a broader, transparent compensation view.
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Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Compensation for in‑demand technical and senior go‑to‑market roles is described as competitive, with visible engineering ranges and top‑end packages. This points to meaningful upside tied to role, level, and scarce skills.
Shield AI Insights
What We Do
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 offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide.
Why Work With Us
What makes Shield AI special is our people. We unlock the power of autonomy, and in the face of overwhelming odds and challenges, we find ways to win and make a difference for our customers. We bring together software, AI, and aerospace engineering disciplines to deploy the most intelligent aviation capabilities in the world.
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
