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Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
The Role
Lead design, integration, deployment, and sustainment of secure cross-domain solutions enabling mission-critical data sharing across Top Secret and classified networks. Responsibilities include architecture design, accreditation, security engineering, troubleshooting, documentation, mentoring, vendor evaluation, upgrades, testing, and operational support in classified environments.
Summary Generated by Built In
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
As a Staff Cross Domain Systems Engineer, you will lead the design, integration, deployment, and sustainment of secure cross domain solutions that enable mission-critical data sharing across Top Secret and other classified network environments. You will serve as a senior technical authority for cross domain architecture, system accreditation, security engineering, and operational support, working closely with cybersecurity, network, infrastructure, mission, and program leadership teams.
What you'll do:
- Lead the engineering and implementation of Cross Domain Solutions that support secure information transfer between classified networks and enclaves.
- Design and evaluate architectures for high-assurance data movement, including guards, transfer solutions, filtering mechanisms, auditing, and policy enforcement capabilities.
- Support Top Secret network environments by ensuring systems are engineered, configured, and maintained in accordance with applicable security policies, mission requirements, and accreditation standards.
- Partner with ISSM, ISSO, network engineering, and operations teams to support system authorization, risk management, vulnerability remediation, and continuous monitoring activities.
- Develop and review technical documentation, including system designs, interface control documents, security artifacts, test plans, implementation procedures, and operational runbooks.
- Troubleshoot complex cross domain, network, system, and security issues across classified environments, providing root cause analysis and long-term corrective actions.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, vendor capabilities, and mission needs to recommend secure, scalable, and operationally effective cross domain architectures.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers, administrators, and mission partners supporting classified infrastructure and secure data exchange.
- Drive improvements in reliability, automation, monitoring, documentation, and engineering standards across cross domain and classified network environments.
- Support system upgrades, technology refreshes, lab validation, integration testing, and production deployments in highly controlled classified environments.
- Serve as a trusted senior engineer for programs requiring secure, reliable, and accredited information sharing across sensitive and mission-critical networks.
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Powershell, Ansible and Python are nice to have.
- Available to be onsite in our Washington, DC or Dallas, Texas office.
- Must have top secret clearance / clearance with SCI eligibility
- Hypervisor environments
- Networking
- Security+ certified, or ability to obtain certification in the first 3 months
#LD
Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
Skills Required
- Minimum 7 years related experience (6 with Master's, 4 with PhD) or equivalent
- Experience with Cross Domain Solutions and cross-domain architecture
- Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility
- Experience with hypervisor environments
- Networking experience
- Security+ certification or ability to obtain within 3 months
- Available to be onsite in Washington, DC or Dallas, Texas
- Powershell
- Ansible
- Python
What the Team is Saying
Dylan
Lead Engineer, Planning and Controls-Motion
Mo
Lead Engineer, Platform Automation
Willy
Technical Director
Michael
Engineering Manager - State Estimation
Vibhav
Senior Staff Engineer
Kirby
Mechanical Engineer
Ryan
CEO
Evan
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
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.
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The Company
What We Do
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-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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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Typical time on-site:
Flexible
