Director of Autonomous Systems Engineering & Architecture

F7d8749a; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI in the United States is seeking a Director of Systems Engineering & Architecture (SE&A) for its Hivemind Enterprise to lead systems engineering, architecture, cybersecurity, and safety/aerworthiness disciplines across the lifecycle of software-intensive autonomous systems.

You will hire and mentor teams, define operating models, own requirements traceability, guide architecture trade-offs, and drive verification plans to ensure rapid, credible delivery that meets mission needs.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in systems engineering for complex multidisciplinary systems.
• Proven leadership of engineering teams and senior technical talent across org boundaries.
• Deep experience with requirements development and management including decomposition, allocation, traceability, and change control.
• Ability to develop system architectures and use models to analyze structure, behavior, interfaces, constraints, and tradeoffs.
• Experience defining verification methods, measurable criteria, and evidence for readiness.
• Experience applying systems engineering within software lifecycles (iterative development, CI, testing, release).
• Ability to drive engineering maturity and tailor rigor to risk with measurable delivery benefits.
• Strong technical judgment to guide cybersecurity, safety, and airworthiness disciplines.
• Experience in autonomous systems, AI-enabled platforms, robotics, or related tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead the SE&A engineering disciplines: hire, develop, and set clear responsibilities and standards.
• Define operating model for SE&A engagement with product and engineering, prioritizing work and allocating resources.
• Own requirements development, architecture modeling, interface definition, traceability and impact analysis.
• Drive system-level verification and validation planning with measurable acceptance criteria.
• Support software development by integrating SE&A into planning, design, testing, release readiness, and sustainment.
• Lead integrated assurance addressing cybersecurity, safety, and airworthiness from the outset.
• Guide technical decisions, lead risk-based design reviews, and resolve cross-team issues.
• Improve engineering effectiveness by establishing practical methods and workflows with earlier risk discovery.

Skills

15+ years

Systems engineering

Leadership

Requirements engineering

Architecture modeling

Verification & validation

Software lifecycle

Engineering effectiveness

Technical judgment

Autonomous systems

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

SysML

Cameo

Job description

Shield AI in the United States is seeking a Director of Systems Engineering & Architecture (SE&A) for its Hivemind Enterprise to lead systems engineering, architecture, cybersecurity, and safety/aerworthiness disciplines across the lifecycle of software-intensive autonomous systems.

You will hire and mentor teams, define operating models, own requirements traceability, guide architecture trade-offs, and drive verification plans to ensure rapid, credible delivery that meets mission needs.