Forward Deployed Engineer, Shield AI
More information about location
Building AI aircraft pilots
Open for applications
Building AI aircraft pilots
1001+ employees
Open for applications
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
Role
Who you are
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, and 2+ years of industry experience, OR
- Master’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, and 1+ years of industry experience
- Strong technical background in software engineering
- Strong proficiency in writing modern C++ code
- Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Desirable
- Experience in the defense, aviation, autonomy, or robotics industry
- Prior experience as a customer-facing solutions engineer, application engineer, or sales engineer
- Experience operating in a fast-paced, startup-like, environment
- Advanced technical degree, especially in robotics or autonomy related fields
What the job involves
- Our Forward Deployed Engineer are technical, customer-facing problem solvers who play a critical role in deploying Shield AI’s Hivemind software in real-world environments
- In this role, you will work closely with customers to understand their requirements, provide technical expertise and customer support during deployment, and ensure successful integration of Hivemind
- You’ll also collaborate internally with engineering teams to develop and test new autonomy capabilities
- Deploy with customers on site (~30% travel) to support software integration and development activities
- Become an expert user of the Hivemind enterprise software stack and its various autonomy modules
- Provide technical support and training to customers on use of Hivemind
- Develop AI & Autonomy applications using the Shield AI enterprise software development kit
- Assist the sales team in pre-sales activities, e.g., demos, conferences, immersions
- Assist in post-sales deployment and integration of Shield AI enterprise software products
- Develop and maintain technical documentation and training materials
- Help customers debug software/API integration issues
- Collaborate with the product engineering team to address customer feedback and improve products
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Self-driving vehicles present enormous benefits for the transportation industry, with the potential to increase the safety and efficiency of cars, trucks, and commercial airlines. However, such technological innovation is less present within the military transportation sector, despite the benefits that AI piloting would produce for the operation of drones and aircraft.
Shield AI is developing Hivemind, an AI-driven pilot that can operate drones and aircraft autonomously, without needing GPS, communications, or pilots. In addition to navigation, the technology is also designed to facilitate indoor building clearance, integrated defence breaching, and has the ability to learn and autonomously execute aircraft missions.
Whilst similar AI-driven pilot software has begun to appear in Chinese military research programs, Shield AI's target is the US. By developing fully autonomous piloting integrations for any type of aircraft, the company aims to future-proof the US military without the need for bespoke aircraft design. It has generated massive amounts of funding to support continued scaling and R&D efforts.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 14 rounds)
Mar 2026
$1.5bn
SERIES G
Mar 2026
$500m
LATE VC
Total funding: $3.0bn
Company benefits
- Excellent Medical Coverage
- Mental Health Employee Assistance Program
- Paid Parental Leave
- Pet Insurance
- Flexible Work Hours
- Gym Discount (San Diego)
- Onsite Gym (DC)
- Free Parking
- Competitive Compensation
- 401K Services and Match
- Stock Benefits
Company HQ
Core-Columbia, San Diego, CA
Leadership
Ryan Tseng
(Co-Founder & President)Experience as CEO, CTO and Founder of WiPower from 2006 to 2010. Technical Lead for Wireless Power Program for Qualcomm from 2010 to 2013.
Brandon Tseng
(Co-Founder & President)Naval Officer for the US Navy from 2009 to 2015.
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