Senior Director, Systems Engineering bei Shieldai

Shield AI’s Hivemind Product Engineering team is seeking a Senior Director of Systems Engineering to establish and scale mature systems engineering practices across our autonomy product portfolio. This leader will build and formalize the processes, frameworks, and technical approaches that ensure our autonomy stack is delivered with rigor, traceability, and predictability, while enabling our teams to move aggressively and innovate at speed.Success in this role requires disciplined urgency: the ability to enforce rigor, certification-ready practices, and engineering discipline without slowing down the mission. The Senior Director will be accountable for driving technical excellence while ensuring we can deliver autonomy capabilities on timelines that meet the needs of critical customer missions.The Senior Director will own the definition of requirements, architecture, verification/validation, and certification-ready processes, with respective Hivemind Product and Engineering teams partnering to support this mandate. This role requires both strategic leadership and hands-on systems engineering expertise, with a mandate to conform our practices to the level expected of safety-critical autonomy products.A critical dimension of this mandate is embedding cybersecurity into every layer of our processes and products, ensuring that requirements, architectures, and verifications systematically account for cyber resilience alongside safety and airworthiness.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

Systems Engineering Function: Define and implement best-in-class systems engineering processes (requirements management, traceability, interface control, architecture, validation/verification)

Drive Cross-Portfolio Consistency: Create a unified systems engineering framework that spans multiple Hivemind product components

Enable Certification & Delivery: Ensure processes and documentation are designed to support airworthiness, safety, and cybersecurity, while enabling rapid iteration and delivery

Lead and Grow Talent: Build and lead a high-performing systems engineering organization, mentoring director and senior engineers

Collaborate Across Functions: Partner with product management, software, hardware, test, and program leadership to align execution with product goals and timelines

Own Technical Rigor: Guide trade studies, systems analysis, and design reviews to ensure disciplined decision-making without sacrificing speed

Champion Tooling & Automation: Implement modern systems engineering tools (e.g., DOORS, Jama, Cameo, JIRA integrations) to drive efficiency in requirements and verification

Represent Systems Engineering: Act as the primary voice of systems engineering with executive leadership, customers, and industry partners

KEY OUTCOMES:

Unified Systems Engineering Framework: Establish and deploy a standardized, model-based systems engineering framework adopted across all Hivemind product components

Accelerated Certification-Readiness: Deliver processes and artifacts that position Shield AI’s autonomy stack for airworthiness, safety, and cybersecurity certification while enabling aggressive development timelines

Measurable Traceability: Achieve end-to-end requirements traceability from concept through verification, ensuring technical rigor and reducing program risk

Team Growth & Capability: Build and mentor a systems engineering team recognized for its ability to deliver rigor with startup-level agility

Tooling Integration: Successfully implement modern systems engineering tools that automate requirements management and verification, cutting cycle time while increasing quality

Credibility & Influence: Establish Shield AI as a recognized leader in systems engineering discipline, trusted by executive leadership, customers, and industry partners alike

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

15+ years of experience in systems engineering, with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles

Proven track record of establishing or scaling systems engineering practices in aerospace, defense, or other safety-critical domains

Deep understanding of model-based systems engineering (MBSE), requirements management, and certification-driven development

Strong leadership, organizational, and communication skills with the ability to influence across teams

Demonstrated ability to balance discipline and rigor with urgency and speed, ensuring safety-critical autonomy products are delivered on accelerated timelines

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience with multi-domain autonomous systems (air, ground, maritime)

Familiarity with acquisition processes

Familiarity with certification standards such as MIL-HDBK-516C, ISO 26262, or equivalent

Advanced degree in engineering or related field

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