Shield AI is seeking a Staff Infrastructure Engineer to design, engineer, and support enterprise infrastructure across offices, engineering environments, data centers, and hybrid cloud platforms.
As part of the Cloud & Infrastructure team within Enterprise Operations, this role will provide senior technical leadership across Active Directory, compute, virtualization, storage, backup and disaster recovery, and core infrastructure services. The Staff Infrastructure Engineer will remain hands-on while helping define scalable, secure, and resilient infrastructure standards that support Shield AI’s continued growth.
This position is based in San Mateo, CA, or the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area, with regular on-site presence required. Occasional travel to other Shield AI offices, engineering sites, and data center locations may be required.
What you'll do:
- Serve as a senior technical resource on the Cloud & Infrastructure team, designing and implementing solutions for complex infrastructure requirements and technical challenges.
- Design, deploy, administer, and optimize Active Directory and core identity infrastructure, including domain services, Group Policy, DNS, authentication, replication, and integration with cloud identity services.
- Engineer and operate enterprise compute, virtualization, and storage infrastructure supporting business, engineering, and mission-critical workloads.
- Design, administer, and optimize enterprise storage platforms, including capacity planning, performance, availability, data protection, replication, and lifecycle management.
- Engineer and support compute platforms across data centers, colocation facilities, offices, and hybrid cloud environments, including virtualization, GPU-accelerated infrastructure, VDI, and specialized engineering workloads.
- Engineer and maintain Windows and Linux server infrastructure across Perform capacity planning and infrastructure sizing for new workloads, engineering environments, site expansions, and data center deployments.
- Design, deploy, and maintain data center and colocation infrastructure, including server and storage platforms, rack-level deployments, capacity planning, hardware lifecycle management, resiliency, and coordination with supporting teams and external providers.
- Perform infrastructure capacity planning and sizing for new workloads, engineering environments, site expansions, and data center deployments.
- Design and continuously improve backup, disaster recovery, and infrastructure resiliency, including recovery architecture, replication, recovery objectives, testing, documentation, and execution of disaster recovery exercises.
- Implement monitoring and observability for infrastructure availability, capacity, performance, and reliability; identify and drive improvements before they become operational issues.
- Develop infrastructure automation and repeatable deployment patterns using Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or similar technologies.
- Support integration between on-premises infrastructure and AWS/Azure, including workloads requiring hybrid connectivity or services, and support containerized or Kubernetes-based infrastructure where appropriate.
- Troubleshoot and resolve complex infrastructure incidents and serve as an escalation point for critical production issues.
- Participate in on-call, emergency response, and planned maintenance activities as required.
- Partner with Cybersecurity on infrastructure hardening, vulnerability remediation, access controls, and compliance requirements.
- Partner with Network Engineering on infrastructure connectivity and dependency requirements while maintaining clear ownership boundaries for enterprise network architecture and network devices.
- Lead infrastructure projects and technical initiatives from design through implementation, including architecture, standards, operational documentation, and handoff procedures.
- Mentor engineers and provide technical guidance while remaining hands-on with infrastructure engineering and implementation.
- Develop and maintain infrastructure standards, architecture documentation, operational procedures, and engineering best practices.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline or equivalent practical experience.
- 8+ years of experience engineering and supporting enterprise infrastructure in production environments.
- Advanced experience administering and engineering Microsoft Active Directory, including AD DS, Group Policy, DNS, authentication, and replication.
- Strong experience with enterprise compute, virtualization, and storage platforms, including technologies such as VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, NetApp, Pure Storage, Dell EMC, or equivalent.
- Strong Windows Server administration experience and working proficiency with Linux systems such as RHEL or Ubuntu.
- Experience designing and implementing backup, replication, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions, including RTO/RPO planning and testing.
- Experience with infrastructure automation and configuration management using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or similar technologies.
- Experience supporting hybrid infrastructure across on-premises environments and AWS and/or Azure.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives, establish engineering standards, troubleshoot ambiguous problems, and mentor other engineers.
- Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting infrastructure in high-availability, mission-critical, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, or engineering environments.
- Deep experience with one or more enterprise storage and data protection ecosystems, including NetApp, Pure Storage, Dell EMC, or equivalent technologies.
- Experience designing infrastructure across multiple offices, engineering sites, laboratories, and data center or colocation environments.
- Experience with Kubernetes or containerized workloads and the underlying compute, storage, and infrastructure requirements that support them.
- Experience supporting GPU compute, high-performance computing, or other accelerated engineering workloads.
- Experience with VDI platforms such as VMware Horizon, Citrix, Azure Virtual Desktop, or equivalent technologies.
- Strong understanding of infrastructure networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, VLANs, and firewalls.
- Experience operating in security-conscious or regulated environments and supporting infrastructure controls aligned with frameworks such as NIST or CMMC.
- Relevant technical certifications such as VMware VCP, Microsoft, NetApp, AWS, Azure, or equivalent certifications.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline or equivalent practical experience
- 8+ years of experience engineering and supporting enterprise infrastructure in production environments
- Advanced experience administering and engineering Microsoft Active Directory, including AD DS, Group Policy, DNS, authentication, and replication
- Experience with enterprise compute, virtualization, and storage platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, NetApp, Pure Storage, or Dell EMC
- Strong Windows Server administration experience and working proficiency with Linux systems such as RHEL or Ubuntu
- Experience designing and implementing backup, replication, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions, including RTO/RPO planning and testing
- Experience with infrastructure automation and configuration management using Terraform, Ansible, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or similar technologies
- Experience supporting hybrid infrastructure across on-premises environments and AWS and/or Azure
- Ability to lead complex technical initiatives, establish engineering standards, troubleshoot ambiguous problems, and mentor engineers
- Effective written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
- Experience supporting infrastructure in high-availability, mission-critical, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, or engineering environments
- Deep experience with enterprise storage and data protection ecosystems such as NetApp, Pure Storage, or Dell EMC
- Experience designing infrastructure across multiple offices, engineering sites, laboratories, and data centers or colocation environments
- Experience with Kubernetes or containerized workloads and related compute, storage, and infrastructure requirements
- Experience supporting GPU compute, high-performance computing, or accelerated engineering workloads
- Experience with VDI platforms such as VMware Horizon, Citrix, or Azure Virtual Desktop
- Understanding of infrastructure networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing, VLANs, and firewalls
- Experience operating in security-conscious or regulated environments and supporting NIST or CMMC-aligned infrastructure controls
- Relevant technical certifications such as VMware VCP, Microsoft, NetApp, AWS, or Azure certifications
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials highlight comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with mental-health support and an EAP. Third-party benefits summaries also portray health coverage as a strong component of the package.
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Retirement Support — Offerings include a 401(k) with employer matching, cited on the careers page and independent benefits directories. Multiple sources indicate a match exists, though exact formulas have varied over time and warrant confirmation.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Company communications describe equity for all full-time hires and stock benefits as part of total rewards. Independent listings also note company equity/RSUs as a standard element.
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.
