Staff Cloud Engineer (R5801)

Shield AI; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Shield AI, a leading defense-tech innovator, is seeking a Staff Cloud Engineer to design, build, and operate scalable cloud infrastructure across multiple products. You will manage AWS-based environments, automate provisioning with Terraform, and enhance observability while ensuring security controls align with compliance requirements.

Based in San Diego, this hands-on role focuses on reliability, cost efficiency, and strong collaboration with Cybersecurity and Enterprise Ops.

Qualifications

• Experience supporting shared cloud infrastructure across multiple products or engineering teams.
• Experience with Kubernetes or other container orchestration platforms.
• Experience with infrastructure as code tooling.
• Experience designing automated or episodic environment lifecycle management.
• Experience operating infrastructure in regulated or compliance-driven environments.
• Experience implementing cloud IAM, access controls, and infrastructure security requirements.
• Experience with AWS cost management, capacity planning, or resource optimization.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate AWS infrastructure and shared development and integration environments.
• Build and maintain infrastructure using Terraform and other infrastructure-as-code tools.
• Automate environment provisioning, configuration, lifecycle management, and other recurring infrastructure tasks.
• Build and operate infrastructure supporting containerized applications and workloads.
• Establish and improve observability across cloud infrastructure and supporting services.
• Diagnose and resolve infrastructure and environment issues across products and platform services.
• Improve the reliability and consistency of shared environments and platform services.
• Partner with Cybersecurity, Infosec, and Enterprise Ops to implement infrastructure and access controls that meet security and compliance requirements.
• Monitor resource utilization and identify opportunities to improve infrastructure cost and capacity.

Skills

Cloud infrastructure

Kubernetes

Infrastructure as code

Automation

Observability

Cost optimization

Security/compliance

Tools

Terraform

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:

Cloud Engineering builds and operates the infrastructure and environments that support Shield AI’s software products and platforms.

As a Staff Cloud Engineer, you will design, build, and operate the cloud infrastructure and environments used to develop, test, integrate, and host Shield AI’s software products and platforms. You will work across AWS infrastructure, shared development environments, and supporting platform services to improve how these systems are provisioned, operated, and maintained.

This is a hands‑on engineering role focused on infrastructure automation, reliability, and operational stability. You will troubleshoot problems across infrastructure and services, improve existing systems, and work with engineering teams to build infrastructure that meets their development and integration needs.

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and operate AWS infrastructure and shared development and integration environments
• Build and maintain infrastructure using Terraform and other infrastructure-as-code tools
• Automate environment provisioning, configuration, lifecycle management, and other recurring infrastructure tasks
• Build and operate infrastructure supporting containerized applications and workloads
• Establish and improve observability across cloud infrastructure and supporting services
• Diagnose and resolve infrastructure and environment issues across products and platform services.
• Improve the reliability and consistency of shared environments and platform services.
• Partner with Cybersecurity, Infosec, and Enterprise Ops to implement infrastructure and access controls that meet security and compliance requirements
• Monitor resource utilization and identify opportunities to improve infrastructure cost and capacity

Required Qualifications

• Experience supporting shared cloud infrastructure across multiple products or engineering teams
• Experience with Kubernetes or other container orchestration platforms
• Experience with infrastructure as code tooling
• Experience designing automated or episodic environment lifecycle management
• Experience operating infrastructure in regulated or compliance-driven environments
• Experience implementing cloud IAM, access controls, and infrastructure security requirements
• Experience with AWS cost management, capacity planning, or resource optimization

$150,000 - $280,000 a year

San Diego, CA range: $150,000 - $230,000

San Mateo, CA range: $180,000 - $280,000

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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.