Manager, Autonomy Applications Engineering (R5188)

The role

Lead and develop a team of Forward Deployed Engineers who support customers with onboarding, deployment, troubleshooting and ongoing use of the Hivemind SDK. The role is customer-facing and technical, with ownership of team performance, customer outcomes and feedback flowing back to the company.

What you will do

• Lead, manage, mentor and develop a team of Forward Deployed Engineers
• Own team planning, prioritization, staffing and execution for on-site and virtual customer engagements
• Provide technical leadership for customer onboarding, deployment, adoption and operational success with the Hivemind SDK
• Serve as escalation point and trusted technical leader for customers using Hivemind in real-world environments
• Translate customer goals and program objectives into technical milestones, execution plans and team priorities
• Drive team accountability for intended customer outcomes during active engagements
• Guide the team through debugging and resolution of complex software and integration issues
• Partner with customer teams and internal stakeholders to remove blockers and improve time-to-value
• Build mechanisms to collect and communicate recurring customer pain points, product gaps and field insights
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to improve product quality, usability and deployment readiness

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science or a related technical field
• 8+ years of relevant technical experience in software engineering, deployment engineering, solutions engineering, applications engineering or forward deployed engineering
• 2+ years of people management or formal technical leadership experience for engineers
• Experience in a customer-facing technical leadership role such as forward deployed, solutions, applications or customer engineering
• Strong technical background in software engineering, including reviewing and debugging complex systems
• Strong proficiency with modern C++ and experience with Python in a professional setting
• Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal, coaching and people leadership skills
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with sound judgment under pressure
• Ability to travel up to 30%

Nice to have

• Experience working in a startup environment
• Experience managing or leading teams in the defense, robotics, aerospace or autonomous systems industry
• Experience building or scaling a forward deployed, solutions, applications or customer engineering function
• Experience gathering field feedback, influencing product direction and establishing repeatable customer success playbooks

Benefits

• Comprehensive total rewards package aligned to your country office location (full details from talent acquisition partner)

Before you apply

• Travel up to 30% is required

About the company

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that builds intelligent systems to protect service members and civilians. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies.