The Human Machine Teaming (HMT) Group at Shield AI is hiring an Engineer II or Senior Engineer to join our HMT Design capability. At Shield AI, HMT refers to the design, management, and assurance of the adaptive relationships between operators and Hivemind-enabled mission autonomy—not just an interface problem, or a function-allocation exercise. Across industry, HMT is often an ad hoc practice, staffed with HMI/UX/UI rather than HMT specialists. In this role, you will implement a systematic, standardized, yet context-sensitive approach to HMT design that is both scalable and traceable in practice.
Working alongside the HMT Design Lead, who owns the collaborative work requirement profile generation process, you will determine HMT-specific requirements across use cases, identify contextual factors that moderate requirements, and translate baselines into context-sensitive design patterns that support adaptivity. You will work with other HMT capabilities to design scenarios, refine testing procedures, and generate HMI feature requests that improve collaboration.
If you want to define how an entire company designs operator-autonomy relationships rather than one interface at a time, this is your opportunity to make a lasting and scalable impact.
What you'll do:
- Build and maintain baseline collaborative work requirement profiles for core operational functions, and generate profile variants for edge and off-nominal cases.
- Define requirements profiles by the operator-autonomy relationship, and document the associated mission risks.
- Classify the degree of operator-autonomy interdependency for a given function, task, or mission thread, and make hard and soft dependencies explicit.
- Map requirements profiles to systems engineering requirements and feature requests, and maintain traceability from operational need through test and acceptance.
- Evolve a repeatable HMT workflow, including HMT standards, design patterns, and review criteria, and co-create a shared HMT body of knowledge.
- Collaborate with HMI and UX/UI designers to turn requirements profiles into design guidance, review interface designs for mission planning, C2, and battle management tools, and with HMT staff to evaluate scenario designs, testing protocols, and outcomes.
- Advocate for human perceptual and cognitive considerations in sensemaking and decision-making tools, and ensure compliance with customer human factors standards.
- Present designs, rationale, and supporting evidence to multiple audiences, and review technical and systems engineering documentation.
- Travel to company, test, demonstration, and customer locations to conduct project work (approximately 20%).
Required qualifications:
- Engineer II: typically requires a minimum of 2 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 0 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD without experience. Senior Engineer: typically requires a minimum of 3–5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 2–4 years and a Master's degree; or 2 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- A degree in human factors engineering or psychology, cognitive systems engineering, applied cognitive science, industrial and systems engineering, or a related field.
- Demonstrated experience translating operational HMT experimentation into design guidance, and system requirements.
- Working knowledge of human machine teaming, human factors, and human performance theory and measurement, including cognitive task analysis and knowledge elicitation.
- Sound grasp of quasi-/experimental design, experience conducting human participants research, and proficiency with multivariate statistical analyses and tools (e.g., SPSS, R, Python).
- Experience in multidisciplinary settings, and ability to work in complex, ambiguous problem spaces and produce clear and structured artifacts.
- Strong teamwork and collaboration skills, and written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred qualifications:
- Hands-on experience with human machine teaming, MUM-T, human-robot interaction, or applied artificial intelligence, specifically in mission autonomy applications such as UAV Groups 1–5.
- Experience with human-machine interface design and proficiency with Figma or an equivalent prototyping toolset.
- Experience in scenario design, and with modeling and simulation tools and methods.
- Experience with mission planning, C2, and battle management concepts, processes, and doctrine, and with ground control stations or HMIs.
- Experience authoring design standards, style guides, or review criteria adopted by other teams.
- Familiarity with traceability methods, or with AI assurance frameworks.
- Willingness to use agentic AI to speed the path from design concept to fielded product.
- Prior work with military operators, pilots, or subject matter experts, or an aircrew background.
- U.S. DoD Secret clearance eligible, with the ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret, SCI, and/or SAP-level access. U.S. citizenship required.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in human factors engineering, psychology, cognitive systems engineering, applied cognitive science, industrial and systems engineering, or a related field
- Engineer II: minimum 2 years of related experience with a bachelor's degree, or 0 years with a master's degree, or a PhD without experience
- Senior Engineer: 3-5 years of related experience with a bachelor's degree, 2-4 years with a master's degree, 2 years with a PhD, or equivalent experience
- Experience translating operational human-machine teaming experimentation into design guidance and system requirements
- Working knowledge of human-machine teaming, human factors, human performance theory and measurement, cognitive task analysis, and knowledge elicitation
- Experience with quasi-experimental or experimental design and human participants research
- Proficiency with multivariate statistical analyses and tools such as SPSS, R, or Python
- Experience working in multidisciplinary settings and producing clear, structured artifacts in complex and ambiguous problem spaces
- Strong teamwork, collaboration, written communication, and verbal communication skills
- Hands-on experience with human-machine teaming, MUM-T, human-robot interaction, or applied artificial intelligence in mission autonomy applications
- Experience with human-machine interface design and Figma or an equivalent prototyping toolset
- Experience in scenario design and modeling and simulation tools and methods
- Experience with mission planning, C2, battle management, ground control stations, or HMIs
- Experience authoring design standards, style guides, or review criteria adopted by other teams
- Familiarity with traceability methods or AI assurance frameworks
- Willingness to use agentic AI
- Prior work with military operators, pilots, or subject matter experts, or an aircrew background
- U.S. DoD Secret clearance eligibility and ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret, SCI, and/or SAP-level access
- U.S. citizenship
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Gallery
%203.jpg)
Shield AI Teams
.jpg)
Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
