What you'll do:
- Define, analyze, and manage system requirements, ensuring traceability and alignment with mission objectives
- Develop system architectures and perform trade studies to balance performance, cost, and risk
- Coordinate and manage interfaces across hardware, software, and external systems
- Support system integration, verification, and validation activities, including test planning and execution
- Identify technical risks and develop mitigation strategies throughout the system lifecycle
Required qualifications:
- A minimum of 5 years of systems engineering or related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 4 years and a Master’s Degree; or 2 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience
- B.S. degree in a STEM discipline (e.g. Software, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Systems Engineering)
- Experience with Systems Engineering practices and principals, including writing, organizing, and verifying requirements
- Experience with MBSE and related efforts
- Experience working in cross-functional teams
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbally
- Organized and methodical
- Software engineer experience in C++ and/or Python
- Experience in reading, interpreting, and applying engineering drawings, including assembly drawings, parts lists, wiring diagrams, and schematics
- Demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others
- The ability to obtain and maintain a US Security Clearance. US Citizenship is required as only US citizens are eligible for a security clearance
Preferred qualifications:
- Expertise with MBSE, inclusive of use of Cameo API and Velocity Template Language (VTL)
- Expertise with Requirement & Design decomposition
- Experience in any/all of the following: Autonomy, Aircraft, Unmanned Vehicles
Skills Required
- Minimum experience: 5 years systems engineering with Bachelor's, or 4 years with Master's, or 2 years with PhD, or equivalent work experience
- B.S. degree in a STEM discipline (Software, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Systems Engineering)
- Experience with Systems Engineering practices and principles, including writing, organizing, and verifying requirements
- Experience with MBSE (Model-Based Systems Engineering)
- Experience working in cross-functional teams
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Organized and methodical work approach
- Software engineering experience in C++ and/or Python
- Experience reading, interpreting, and applying engineering drawings, including assembly drawings, parts lists, wiring diagrams, and schematics
- Ability to obtain and maintain a US Security Clearance; US Citizenship required
- Demonstrated record of teamwork, trustworthiness, high standards, and professionalism
- Expertise with MBSE including use of Cameo API and Velocity Template Language (VTL)
- Expertise with requirement and design decomposition
- Experience with autonomy, aircraft, or unmanned vehicles
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
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 Teams
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
