Shield AI · 1 day ago
Senior Director, Engineering (R4493)
San Diego, California
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
12+ years expShield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company focused on protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. They are seeking a Senior Director of Engineering to lead the core Hivemind Platform engineering teams, ensuring high-quality execution and delivery across various projects.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Autonomous VehiclesDronesMachine LearningNational Security
Responsibilities
Own delivery, execution velocity, and technical coherence across Forge, Pilot, Foundations, and Strategic Projects
Be accountable for platform delivery outcomes
Translate platform strategy and product direction into executable engineering plans and commitments
Directly manage and develop the leaders of Forge, Pilot, Foundations, and Strategic Projects
Set and uphold a high bar for technical rigor, ownership, and operational excellence
Build, scale, and sustain a high-performing engineering leadership team
Own cross-team prioritization and execution tradeoffs within the platform
Resolve conflicts decisively and transparently
Balance speed, quality, scalability, safety, and certifiability in delivery decisions
Partner with Product Management to align engineering execution with platform and customer priorities
Work closely with Architecture to ensure platform evolution is executable and sustainably delivered
Coordinate with Quality, Systems Engineering, and Program Management to ensure integrated delivery
Define and operate the platform engineering execution model (planning, tracking, reviews, escalation)
Ensure clear decision rights, ownership, and accountability across teams
Provide visibility into progress, risks, and dependencies without unnecessary process overhead
Ensure platform capabilities scale across missions, domains, customers, and autonomous platforms
Identify systemic execution risks and drive corrective action
Continuously improve engineering effectiveness and delivery predictability
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Robotics Engineering, Autonomy Systems or a related technical field
12+ years of experience in software-intensive systems, with significant experience leading engineering organizations
Proven track record owning delivery for complex systems across multiple teams
Demonstrated ability to make hard prioritization and tradeoff decisions and deliver results
Strong systems-level understanding across software platforms, autonomy, integration, and operations
Experience building, leading, and scaling senior engineering leaders
Exceptional communication skills with technical, executive, and cross-functional stakeholders
Preferred
Experience leading platform or infrastructure organizations supporting multiple products or programs
Background in autonomy, robotics, aerospace, defense, or other safety-critical systems
Experience operating in environments with high assurance, certification, or mission-critical constraints
Benefits
Bonus
Benefits
Equity
Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Company
Shield AI
Shield AI is a deep-tech company that focuses on developing AI-powered systems to enhance the safety of service members and civilians.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Shield AI has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (3)
2024 (3)
2021 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$1.31BKey Investors
Hercules CapitalUS Innovative Technology FundSnowpoint Ventures
2025-03-06Series F· $240M
2023-12-29Debt Financing· $200M
2023-10-31Series F· $300M
Leadership Team
Gary Steele
Chief Executive Officer
Brandon Tseng
Co-Founder
Recent News
2026-01-24
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2026-01-19
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2026-01-19
Company data provided by crunchbase