Senior Engineer, Software (R6010)

Shieldai; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI in San Diego is seeking a Senior or Staff Software Engineer for the Developer Experience Engineering team. You will design, build, and operate tools and platforms that improve the end-to-end developer experience across Hivemind, devcontainers, and the internal dev platform.

You will collaborate with engineers to reduce friction, drive adoption through documentation, and guide technical direction. Experience with AWS, Git/GitLab, Backstage, and cloud-native practices is preferred.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software engineering experience or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated technical judgment in the design and operation of developer tools, platforms, backend services, APIs, distributed systems, or related production software.
• Experience owning software from initial design through deployment, operation, adoption, and continuous improvement.
• Systems thinking and the ability to turn recurring or ambiguous developer needs into coherent, reusable solutions.
• Strong customer orientation toward internal developers and an interest in understanding and improving how engineering work gets done.
• Effective collaboration and communication across engineering teams and organizational stakeholders.
• Ability to advocate for new tools and practices, incorporate feedback, and build adoption through influence.
• Experience with AWS and cloud-native development practicesExperience with Git, GitLab, Backstage, or similar developer-platform technologies.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate tools and platforms that improve the end-to-end Hivemind developer experience.
• Advance local development workflows, devcontainers, internal developer platforms, project templates, and other reusable engineering capabilities.
• Bring agentic AI capabilities into developer tools and workflows, evaluating opportunities and turning promising ideas into reliable, practical solutions.
• Partner with engineering teams to understand developer needs, identify recurring friction, and create paved paths that improve productivity without limiting appropriate flexibility.
• Enable co-development and inner-source collaboration through accessible tooling, documentation, standards, and contribution practices.
• Drive adoption of developer tools by working closely with engineers, gathering feedback, providing guidance, and clearly communicating their value.
• Own solutions through discovery, design, implementation, testing, deployment, operation, and continuous improvement.
• Use DORA metrics, developer feedback, adoption data, and other signals to understand outcomes and guide investment.
• Contribute to technical direction through design reviews, architectural decisions, thoughtful tradeoffs, and collaboration across engineering teams.
• At the Staff level, lead cross-team initiatives, establish longer-term technical direction, and influence how Hivemind approaches developer productivity at organizational scale.

Skills

Software engineering

Technical leadership

Ownership of software lifecycle

Customer orientation

Cross-team collaboration

Advocacy for new tools

AWS

Git/GitLab/Backstage

Languages: Python/Go/JS/TS

Tools

Git

GitLab

Backstage

AWS

Job description

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-BATaircraft, 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 www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Job Description:

Hivemind is looking for an experienced Senior or Staff Software Engineer to join our Developer Experience Engineering team.

The Developer Experience team owns the tools, platforms, and practices that shape how engineers build software for Hivemind. This includes local development environments, devcontainers, our internal developer platform, project templates, and approaches that enable co-development and inner-source collaboration across engineering teams.

You will build tools and paved paths that make development faster, more consistent, and more reliable. A near-term focus for this role will be bringing agentic AI capabilities into our developer tools and workflows in ways that deliver meaningful, measurable value to engineers.

This is a hands-on engineering role with broad organizational impact. You will partner directly with developers, identify recurring sources of friction, turn ambiguous needs into durable solutions, and drive adoption through documentation, advocacy, and close collaboration. You will care about engineering productivity and use signals such as DORA metrics and developer feedback to guide priorities and measure outcomes.

This position may be filled at the Senior or Staff level based on the candidate’s experience, demonstrated technical leadership, and scope of impact.

• Design, build, and operate tools and platforms that improve the end-to-end Hivemind developer experience
• Advance local development workflows, devcontainers, internal developer platforms, project templates, and other reusable engineering capabilities
• Bring agentic AI capabilities into developer tools and workflows, evaluating opportunities and turning promising ideas into reliable, practical solutions
• Partner with engineering teams to understand developer needs, identify recurring friction, and create paved paths that improve productivity without limiting appropriate flexibility
• Enable co-development and inner-source collaboration through accessible tooling, documentation, standards, and contribution practices
• Drive adoption of developer tools by working closely with engineers, gathering feedback, providing guidance, and clearly communicating their value
• Own solutions through discovery, design, implementation, testing, deployment, operation, and continuous improvement
• Use DORA metrics, developer feedback, adoption data, and other signals to understand outcomes and guide investment
• Contribute to technical direction through design reviews, architectural decisions, thoughtful tradeoffs, and collaboration across engineering teams
• At the Staff level, lead cross-team initiatives, establish longer-term technical direction, and influence how Hivemind approaches developer productivity at organizational scale

• 4+ years of software engineering experience or equivalent practical experience
• Demonstrated technical judgment in the design and operation of developer tools, platforms, backend services, APIs, distributed systems, or related production software
• Experience owning software from initial design through deployment, operation, adoption, and continuous improvement
• Systems thinking and the ability to turn recurring or ambiguous developer needs into coherent, reusable solutions
• Strong customer orientation toward internal developers and an interest in understanding and improving how engineering work gets done
• Effective collaboration and communication across engineering teams and organizational stakeholders
• Ability to advocate for new tools and practices, incorporate feedback, and build adoption through influence
• Experience with AWS and cloud-native development practicesExperience with Git, GitLab, Backstage, or similar developer-platform technologies

• For Staff-level consideration, a demonstrated record of leading technically complex, cross-team initiatives and shaping technical direction beyond an immediate team
• Experience building or operating internal developer platforms, developer portals, development environments, or reusable engineering frameworks
• Experience applying AI or agentic systems to software development tools and workflows
• Proficiency in one or more relevant languages, such as Python, Go, JavaScript, or TypeScript/Node.js
• Experience with devcontainers, project scaffolding, service templates, or standardized local development environments
• Experience enabling inner-source development or contribution across team boundaries
• Familiarity with DORA metrics, developer productivity measurement, and qualitative developer-experience research

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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.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed toequal 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.