This is a senior individual contributor role responsible for end-to-end infrastructure ownership — spanning on-premises systems, cloud platforms, endpoint environments, identity services, and local engineering support. The Staff Systems Administrator operates with significant independence, defining priorities, executing improvements, and ensuring operational resilience with minimal oversight.
This role requires a self-starter who can design, implement, support, and continuously improve infrastructure in a secure, performance-driven environment while also maintaining hands-on ownership of end-user systems and service delivery.
You will function as the accountable infrastructure lead for your environment, ensuring it remains secure, compliant, scalable, and highly available — while continuing to deliver responsive support to engineering and business teams.
This role is based in India and supports the AI Hive entity.
What you'll do:
- Own and operate on-premises and cloud infrastructure, including servers, virtualization, storage, identity platforms, and core enterprise services.
- Administer Azure/AWS environments, ensuring availability, performance, monitoring, backup, and disaster recovery readiness.
- Maintain secure system configurations, patching, vulnerability remediation, and infrastructure hardening.
- Operate effectively within a controlled, security-sensitive environment with segmented systems and defined access boundaries.
- Identify risks and independently drive modernization, scalability, and resilience improvements.
- Administer Active Directory and Entra ID (Azure AD), enforcing role-based access and secure configuration standards.
- Ensure compliance with internal controls, documentation requirements, and audit readiness expectations.
- Own IT asset lifecycle management, vendor coordination, licensing oversight, and operational reporting.
- Contribute infrastructure patterns and operational standards that can scale across similar environments.
- Provide hands-on support across Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints, including advanced troubleshooting and escalation management.
- Lead onboarding and offboarding processes, including device provisioning, access configuration, and endpoint compliance validation.
- Support engineering systems, lab environments, and secure connectivity needs.
- Remove operational IT friction so engineers and business teams remain focused on mission delivery.
Required qualifications:
- 12+ years of experience in systems administration, enterprise IT operations, or infrastructure engineering.
- Demonstrated experience independently owning and operating IT infrastructure in complex environments.
- Strong hands-on expertise across:
- Windows, macOS, and Linux systems
- Server administration and virtualization
- Cloud platforms (Azure and/or AWS)
- Identity platforms (Active Directory, Azure AD / Entra ID)
- Experience managing infrastructure in segmented, regulated, or security-sensitive environments.
- Strong networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN, firewall concepts).
- Experience with endpoint management platforms (Intune, Jamf, or equivalent).
- Experience implementing backup, disaster recovery, and monitoring solutions.
- Strong documentation discipline and operational rigor.
- Proven ability to work with minimal supervision and drive outcomes independently.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting engineering, R&D, or defense-oriented teams.
- Experience operating in startup or high-growth environments.
- Familiarity with DevOps tooling (Azure DevOps, GitHub, CI/CD environments).
- Scripting or automation experience (PowerShell, Bash, Python).
- Experience supporting air-gapped or isolated infrastructure environments.
- ITIL knowledge or certifications.
- Relevant industry certifications (Microsoft, AWS, VMware, CompTIA, etc.).
Why join Shield AI:
- Help build the defining defence technology company of this century.
- Work at the forefront of AI, autonomy, and next-generation defence systems.
- Operate in a highly entrepreneurial and mission-driven environment.
- Make a direct impact on international growth and strategic defence partnerships.
- Collaborate with exceptional teams solving some of the world’s most complex operational challenges.
Skills Required
- 12+ years of experience in systems administration, enterprise IT operations, or infrastructure engineering.
- Proven experience independently owning and operating IT infrastructure in complex environments.
- Hands-on expertise with Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints.
- Server administration and virtualization experience.
- Experience with cloud platforms (Azure and/or AWS).
- Experience with identity platforms (Active Directory, Azure AD / Entra ID).
- Experience managing infrastructure in segmented, regulated, or security-sensitive environments.
- Strong networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN, firewall concepts).
- Experience with endpoint management platforms (Intune, Jamf, or equivalent).
- Experience implementing backup, disaster recovery, and monitoring solutions.
- Strong documentation discipline and operational rigor.
- Proven ability to work with minimal supervision and drive outcomes independently.
- Experience supporting engineering, R&D, or defense-oriented teams.
- Experience operating in startup or high-growth environments.
- Familiarity with DevOps tooling (Azure DevOps, GitHub, CI/CD environments).
- Scripting or automation experience (PowerShell, Bash, Python).
- Experience supporting air-gapped or isolated infrastructure environments.
- ITIL knowledge or certifications.
- Relevant industry certifications (Microsoft, AWS, VMware, CompTIA, etc.).
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 Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
