Shield AI is seeking an Autonomy Applications Engineer, Learning & Development to help accelerate customer adoption of Hivemind through world-class technical training and enablement. This is a highly technical, customer-facing role for someone who is equally comfortable mastering complex autonomy software, building cutting-edge training content, and leading in-person training engagements with customer engineers and technical stakeholders.
In this role, you will become a deep expert in the Hivemind software stack and serve as a trusted resource for customers learning to build autonomy with Hivemind. You will develop and maintain training materials, deliver instructor-led training, and help translate product complexity into clear, effective, mission-relevant learning experiences.
You will also work closely with internal engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to ensure training content stays aligned with the latest product capabilities and field feedback. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys teaching, building, and solving technical problems at the intersection of software, autonomy, and customer success.
This role includes approximately 30% travel for customer site visits specifically to facilitate in-person training engagements.
What you'll do:
- Become an expert user of the Hivemind software stack and workflows
- Lead in-person and hands-on customer training engagements for Hivemind software
- Develop, maintain, and continuously improve high-quality technical training materials, guides, labs, and instructor-led content
- Train customer engineers and technical teams to effectively use Hivemind software and build autonomy applications
- Help customers troubleshoot software usage issues and support debugging of in training contexts
- Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams to incorporate customer feedback into training content and product improvements
- Develop and maintain technical documentation and learning resources that help scale customer adoption
- Help define best practices for autonomy training and customer enablement across Shield AI deployments
- Represent Shield AI as a technical educator and product expert, helping drive the global proliferation of autonomous systems
You should apply if:
- You enjoy teaching highly technical material and can turn complex software concepts into clear, engaging learning experiences
- You are energized by customer-facing work and enjoy facilitating in-person training engagements
- You have strong engineering fundamentals and can build credibility quickly with technical users
- You are comfortable operating with autonomy and ownership in dynamic customer environments
- You enjoy working across engineering, product, and customer teams to improve both user outcomes and product adoption
- You are passionate about or have great interest in autonomy, robotics, or defense technology
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
- 5+ years of relevant experience
- 3+ years of experience in an applications engineering, integration engineering, solutions engineering, technical training, technical enablement, or similarly customer-facing technical role
- Strong technical background in software engineering
- Strong proficiency with modern C++
- Experience with Python in a professional setting
- Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
- Clear interest in being an educator engineer who enjoys instructing technical users and developing their capability
- Ability to travel approximately 30%, including occasional international travel a
Preferred qualifications:
- 3+ years of experience working in a startup environment
- Experience in the defense, robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems industry
- Experience developing technical documentation, training materials, or instructional content for complex technical products
- Experience designing hands-on technical labs, workshops, or instructor-led training programs
Why this role matters:
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
- 7+ years of relevant experience
- 3+ years in applications engineering, integration engineering, solutions engineering, technical training, technical enablement, or similar customer-facing technical role
- Strong technical background in software engineering
- Strong proficiency with modern C++
- Experience with Python in a professional setting
- Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
- Clear interest in being an educator engineer who enjoys instructing technical users and developing their capability
- Ability to travel approximately 30%, including occasional international travel
- 3+ years of experience working in a startup environment
- Experience in the defense, robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems industry
- Experience developing technical documentation, training materials, or instructional content for complex technical products
- Experience designing hands-on technical labs, workshops, or instructor-led training programs
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.
