a16z Staff Engineer, Mission Systems - Fleet Support (R5004)
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:
Shield AI is seeking a Senior Mission Systems Engineer to serve as the mission systems SME for the V-BAT Fleet Support team. In this role, you will own customer-facing engineering support for payload system issues, transponder system issues, emerging mission-technology integrations, and systems that communicate with external sources or provide data externally.
You will serve as the bridge between Fleet Support and the mission systems, payload, software, electrical, and communications engineering teams to ensure customers receive expert engineering support for mission-critical capabilities.
What you'll do:
- Serve as the mission systems SME for Fleet Support and lead escalated investigations involving payloads, transponders, and externally connected mission systems.
- Diagnose payload integration and performance issues involving power, thermal behavior, compute, configuration, data interfaces, timing, and subsystem interoperability.
- Troubleshoot systems that communicate with external sources or provide data externally, including mission-data outputs, external interfaces, and system-to-system connectivity issues.
- Support the introduction of emerging technologies and new mission capabilities into the fielded fleet by identifying support risks, validation needs, and integration challenges.
- Work directly with customers, operators, and maintainers to understand mission impact, reproduce issues, and define corrective actions.
- Partner with electrical, software, and RF teams on cross-functional mission-system problems.
- Support lab validation, hardware integration, test readiness, and field demonstrations related to mission-system fixes.
- Create technical guidance, interface notes, troubleshooting procedures, and customer-facing documentation for fielded mission capabilities.
- Capture recurring issues and feed lessons learned back into product, systems, and design teams.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.
- 5+ years of experience in payload integration, sensor integration, mission systems, avionics integration, or aircraft systems engineering.
- Experience troubleshooting complex systems that span hardware, software, networking, and operational workflows.
- Strong ability to move between high-level mission context and detailed subsystem investigation.
- Experience working across design, integration, test, and field-support environments.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in customer-facing technical settings.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) payloads, radar, transponders, or other externally connected aircraft mission systems.
- Experience with interface control documents, validation planning, and flight-test support.
- Experience introducing new payloads or mission kits into operational fleets.
- Experience with defense, maritime, or expeditionary mission systems.
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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.