Senior Staff Engineer, Mission Architect (R5876)

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, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. 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. 

Job Description:

We are seeking a Mission Engineer to own the mission representation of various programs, applying systems engineering, modeling, simulation, and operational analysis techniques to evaluate how Shield AI’s autonomous systems enable desired mission effects. This role is pivotal in analyzing mission architectures, system interactions, capability gaps, and performance drivers across multiple platforms and domains. You will work closely with engineering, product development, operational analysis, and defense stakeholders to translate mission needs into traceable autonomy requirements that inform design trade-offs, system requirements, technology priorities, and operational concepts. 

This position requires a strong understanding of military operations, systems engineering, modeling & simulation (M&S), mission analysis, operational analysis techniques, requirements traceability, and model verification and validation techniques. Your work will directly shape Shield AI’s strategy and product development by connecting mission objectives and operational needs to system capabilities, architectures, and engineering decisions.