a16z Staff Engineer, HMS DevOps/DevEx (R6196)
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Summary
Staff engineer on Shield AI's HMS DevOps/DevEx team builds and maintains the CI/CD infrastructure powering development of the Hivemind autonomy software: GitLab pipelines and runner fleets, automation integrating GitLab/Jira/Confluence, secure Artifactory registries, Nix dev environments, and Forge simulation orchestration in Azure Gov Cloud.
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 . Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
As an engineer on the HMS DevOps/DevEx Team, you will write the automation, configure the environments, and build the CI/CD pipelines that power the software development lifecycle across Hivemind Solutions. Your work is hands-on and focused on engineering maximum velocity, reproducibility, and security into our distributed developer tooling and cloud testing environments.
You will completely automate tool workflows by writing scripts and API integrations connecting GitLab, Jira, and Confluence. You will configure and optimize C++, Python, and Node.js compilation pipelines, scale auto-running GitLab runner fleets, manage secure Artifactory container registries, deploy Forge in Azure Gov Cloud, and write custom HMS extensions to our pi-gov GenAI routing harness.
What you'll do:
- Write, configure, and maintain robust GitLab CI/CD pipelines and runner environments for C++, Python, and Node.js software projects, ensuring fast compilation and test execution.
- Build, test, and deploy automated tooling integrations, webhook dispatchers, and state-change scripts connecting GitLab, Jira, and Confluence to orchestrate release workflows.
- Write custom Python or Bash extensions for our pi-gov harness, configuring secure, audited LLM routing rules and local container configurations.
- Deploy, scale, and configure the Forge simulation and test orchestrator in Azure Gov Cloud, optimizing runner autoscaling and cloud compute consumption.
- Maintain, configure, and secure Artifactory package registries, implementing secure container builds via BuildKit, secret injection, and Entra ID integration.
- Partner with development teams to migrate legacy project build systems to reproducible Nix developer environments, writing default Nix derivations and flake configurations.
- Troubleshoot pipeline failures, broken builds, registry access issues, and system-level configuration drift across development environments.
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- Practical experience building, maintaining, and scaling enterprise CI/CD systems, with deep expertise in GitLab CI/CD pipelines and runner infrastructure.
- Direct experience writing scripts (Bash, Python) and utilizing webhooks/APIs to automate and integrate engineering tools (such as Jira, Confluence, and GitLab).
- Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker, multi-stage builds) and package managers (such as Conan, Poetry, or Nix).
- Familiarity with deploying and managing application workloads in cloud environments (such as Azure Gov Cloud or AWS).
- Experience with secure software development practices, secret management, and identity providers (Active Directory, Entra ID).
- Solid Linux system administration, networking, and troubleshooting skills.
- Ability to obtain and maintain an active U.S. SECRET security clearance (U.S. citizenship required).
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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.
Skills
As published by lever · 19 questions · 9 written answers
Basics
Resume/CV, Full name, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn URL, Twitter URL, GitHub URL, Portfolio URL, Other website
Short answers (1)
- Please state your full legal name:
Pick from a list (9)
- Are you authorized to work in the United States?
- Will you require sponsorship for employment now or in the future?
- This position may require access to information and technology that is subject to export controls, such as EAR. Are you any of the following?
- Shield AI provides technology, services, and support to the United States military and allied forces with their various missions. If selected for employment with Shield AI, your contributions will directly relate to and/or support these missions. Are there any reasons why you would not be able to fully contribute in support of the U.S. military and allied forces?
- How did you hear about us?
- Are you a transitioning service member?
- If yes, what partnership program are you working with? optional
- Are you local to or willing to relocate? optional
- What office(s) would you be willing to relocate to? (Select all that apply) optional
Written answers (9)
- If yes, what type of sponsorship? optional
- If you selected "A protected Individual" OR "Other" to the above question, please explain further. optional
- (Optional) If you selected other or would like to expand on the above, feel free to do so below: optional
- If "Industry Conference" or "Other," please provide more details: optional
- If other, please provide further details optional
- When are you available to start your fellowship? optional
- When are you available for full time work? optional
- What full time job(s) are you applying for?
- If you selected international, what location(s)? optional