Shield AI is hiring a Hivemind Field Solutions Engineer based in Melbourne, Australia to support technical sales, customer engagements, demonstrations, and capture activities focused on advanced simulation, synthetic environments, image generation systems, and AI-enabled mission systems.
This role will support international defense simulation, training, test, and evaluation customers, with a focus on Australia, the Indo-Pacific, AUKUS, and allied defense partners. The Field Solutions Engineer will help customers understand how Shield AI and Aechelon capabilities can support next-generation synthetic battlespace environments, live-virtual-constructive ecosystems, and AI-enabled simulation use cases.
This role requires direct, hands-on experience with advanced defense simulation environments and related training, test, and evaluation ecosystems. The ideal candidate should understand image generation systems, platform-in-a-box solutions, threat models, constructive entities, sensor simulation, scenario generation, and LVC architectures.
This is a simulation-first role. Autonomy experience is valuable where AI or autonomy is used to run synthetic agents, generate behaviors, drive adversary models, automate scenarios, or improve realism in simulated environments. Real-world autonomy experience is preferred, but the primary requirement is deep simulation domain expertise and strong customer-facing technical communication.
What you'll do:
- Serve as a customer-facing technical expert for Shield AI simulation, synthetic environment, and AI-enabled mission system capabilities.
- Support customer discovery, technical briefings, demonstrations, technical interchange meetings, RFIs, RFPs, proposals, white papers, and capture activities.
- Translate customer mission needs, training objectives, test requirements, CONOPs, and integration considerations into credible solution concepts.
- Support engagements involving advanced defense simulation, training, test, and evaluation environments across Australia, the Indo-Pacific, AUKUS, and allied markets.
- Explain image generation systems, synthetic environments, PAIBs, threat models, LVC architectures, sensor simulation, scenario generation, and AI-enabled synthetic agents to technical, operational, commercial, and leadership audiences.
- Partner with Business Development, Capture, Product, Engineering, Customer Engagement, Program, and technical teams to represent customer requirements, risks, roadmap gaps, and field feedback.
- Help customers evaluate how advanced simulation and synthetic environments can support operational training, mission rehearsal, test and evaluation, experimentation, force modernization, and AI/autonomy development.
- Develop technical sales assets, including capability briefs, demo scripts, solution templates, FAQs, white papers, technical explainers, and customer-specific briefing materials.
- Maintain product truth by ensuring customer-facing materials and discussions accurately reflect current capabilities, constraints, roadmap timing, and integration considerations.
- Build trusted relationships with customer technical stakeholders, operational users, acquisition stakeholders, regional partners, and internal cross-functional teams.
Required qualifications:
- 7+ years of experience in modeling and simulation, training systems, test and evaluation, image generation systems, synthetic environments, defense software, aerospace systems, solutions engineering, systems engineering, field applications engineering, technical sales, or related technical customer-facing roles.
- Direct hands-on experience with advanced defense simulation, training, or test environments, or similar synthetic battlespace ecosystems.
- Practical experience with image generation systems, platform-in-a-box systems, synthetic environments, threat models, constructive entities, sensor simulation, scenario generation, or live-virtual-constructive environments.
- Strong understanding of how simulation systems are used for operational training, mission rehearsal, experimentation, test and evaluation, and capability development.
- Experience supporting customer-facing technical engagements, proposal efforts, integration discussions, technical interchange meetings, or operational workshops.
- Ability to translate customer requirements, mission needs, training objectives, and technical constraints into feasible solution concepts, requirements, demos, and product feedback.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical systems to technical, operational, commercial, and leadership audiences.
- Ability to work cross-functionally with Business Development, Product, Engineering, Customer Engagement, Program teams, technical SMEs, and regional partners.
- Strong judgment in representing product capabilities, limitations, roadmap dependencies, and integration considerations to customers.
- Willingness and ability to travel internationally for customer engagements, demonstrations, exercises, and internal meetings.
- Ability to work from or regularly support activities in Melbourne, Australia.
- Professional fluency in English.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting defense simulation, training, test, or experimentation customers in Australia, the Indo-Pacific, AUKUS, or allied international markets.
- Experience working with Australian Defence Force, Australian defense industry, government, aerospace, training, simulation, or national security stakeholders.
- Experience with AI-enabled synthetic agents, computer-generated forces, adversary behavior models, automated scenario generation, or AI-driven entity behavior in simulated environments.
- Real-world autonomy experience, including autonomous aircraft, unmanned systems, robotics, AI-enabled mission systems, or autonomy software.
- Familiarity with LVC architectures, simulation interoperability, DIS/HLA, test infrastructure, training range integration, or distributed simulation environments.
- Hands-on experience with Python, C++, Linux, APIs, SDKs, simulation tooling, visualization systems, autonomy software, robotics middleware, or technical prototyping.
- Prior military, defense, aerospace, simulation, test, training, robotics, unmanned systems, or advanced software experience.
- Experience working across varied customer cultures, acquisition processes, operational concepts, and partner ecosystems.
Skills Required
- 7+ years of experience in modeling and simulation, training systems, test and evaluation, image generation systems, synthetic environments, defense software, aerospace systems, solutions engineering, systems engineering, field applications engineering, technical sales, or related technical customer-facing roles.
- Direct hands-on experience with advanced defense simulation, training, or test environments, or similar synthetic battlespace ecosystems.
- Practical experience with image generation systems, platform-in-a-box systems, synthetic environments, threat models, constructive entities, sensor simulation, scenario generation, or live-virtual-constructive environments.
- Strong understanding of simulation use for operational training, mission rehearsal, experimentation, test and evaluation, and capability development.
- Experience supporting customer-facing technical engagements, proposal efforts, integration discussions, technical interchange meetings, or operational workshops.
- Ability to translate customer requirements, mission needs, training objectives, and technical constraints into feasible solution concepts, requirements, demos, and product feedback.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for explaining complex technical systems to technical, operational, commercial, and leadership audiences.
- Ability to work cross-functionally with Business Development, Product, Engineering, Customer Engagement, Program teams, technical SMEs, and regional partners.
- Strong judgment in representing product capabilities, limitations, roadmap dependencies, and integration considerations to customers.
- Willingness and ability to travel internationally for customer engagements, demonstrations, exercises, and internal meetings.
- Ability to work from or regularly support activities in Melbourne, Australia.
- Professional fluency in English.
- Experience supporting defense simulation, training, test, or experimentation customers in Australia, the Indo-Pacific, AUKUS, or allied international markets.
- Experience working with Australian Defence Force, Australian defense industry, government, aerospace, training, simulation, or national security stakeholders.
- Experience with AI-enabled synthetic agents, computer-generated forces, adversary behavior models, automated scenario generation, or AI-driven entity behavior in simulated environments.
- Real-world autonomy experience, including autonomous aircraft, unmanned systems, robotics, AI-enabled mission systems, or autonomy software.
- Familiarity with LVC architectures, simulation interoperability, DIS/HLA, test infrastructure, training range integration, or distributed simulation environments.
- Hands-on experience with Python, C++, Linux, APIs, SDKs, simulation tooling, visualization systems, autonomy software, robotics middleware, or technical prototyping.
- Prior military, defense, aerospace, simulation, test, training, robotics, unmanned systems, or advanced software experience.
- Experience working across varied customer cultures, acquisition processes, operational concepts, and partner ecosystems.
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as excellent, with dental/vision and mental‑health support, and ancillary protections like life and disability appearing in benefit summaries. The breadth and perceived affordability of coverage are highlighted as a standout component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is featured alongside enhanced maternity benefits, fertility and childcare support, and onsite resources such as a Mother’s Room. These elements are positioned as competitive and above the minimal baseline for the company’s stage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full‑time hires, with RSUs, double‑trigger tax timing, and tools to model scenarios (e.g., through Carta Tax). Communications also reference a transition from options to RSUs, reinforcing access and maturity of ownership programs.
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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