Extracted from the posting
TL;DR
Director of Systems Engineering & Architecture for Shield AI's Hivemind Enterprise organization, overseeing systems engineering, system architecture, cybersecurity engineering, and safety/airworthiness engineering. The role hires and leads these disciplines, owns requirements, architecture, and verification and validation planning, and partners with Product, Software Engineering, Program Management, and Integration and Test. Requires at least 15 years of applied systems engineering experience.
The full posting
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
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We are seeking a Director of Systems Engineering & Architecture (SE&A) for Shield AI’s Hivemind Enterprise organization, supporting development of our autonomy platform and development ecosystem for AI Pilots. This leader will oversee Systems Engineering, System Architecture, Cybersecurity Engineering, and Safety/Airworthiness Engineering, building the teams and technical practices needed to deliver dependable, software-intensive autonomous systems.
You will connect operational product needs to measurable requirements, coherent architectures, and credible verification and assurance evidence. Partnering with Product, Software Engineering, Program Management, and Integration and Test teams, you will embed practical engineering rigor throughout the development lifecycle.
What You'll Do:
- Lead the team: Hire, develop, and lead the SE&A engineering disciplines, establishing clear responsibilities, technical standards, and effective cross-functional partnerships.
- Establish the operating model: Define how SE&A engages with product and engineering teams, prioritizes competing demands, and allocates resources. Establish clear decision rights, escalation paths, and risk-proportionate engineering practices that improve delivery without unnecessary process overhead.
- Own requirements and architecture: Guide requirements development and management, system modeling, architectural trade studies, interface definition, traceability, and change impact analysis.
- Drive verification and validation planning: Establish system-level verification and validation strategies, measurable acceptance criteria, and evidence expectations. Partner with integration and test teams to demonstrate end-to-end capability.
- Support software development: Integrate systems engineering and architecture into iterative planning, design, implementation, testing, release readiness, and sustainment.
- Lead integrated assurance: Ensure cybersecurity, safety, and airworthiness considerations shape requirements, architecture, development, and verification from the outset.
- Guide technical decisions: Lead risk-based design reviews, resolve cross-team technical issues, and provide evidence-based readiness recommendations while preserving designated approval and risk-acceptance authorities.
- Improve engineering effectiveness: Establish and continuously improve practical methods, models, and workflows that connect requirements, architecture, implementation, and evidence. Measure success through earlier risk discovery, reduced rework, improved integration and release predictability, and timely closure of verification and assurance gaps.
What You'll Bring:
Experience That Will Help You Stand Out:
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.
Compensation: USD 215,000 – 325,000 per year salary