Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment - open level (R5497)

The role

You will deploy, support, and sustain Hivemind software and autonomy products in real operating environments, working directly with customers. The role includes installation, configuration, validation, training, troubleshooting, and turning field lessons into runbooks and support records.

What you will do

• Deploy with customers on site globally to install, configure, validate, train, troubleshoot, and sustain Hivemind products
• Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise software stack, autonomy modules, deployment tooling, and diagnostic workflows
• Execute and improve deployment runbooks covering installation, version validation, pre-mission checks, and acceptance steps
• Provide hands-on technical support to operators, maintainers, partners, and internal field teams during deployment and test windows
• Capture and organize field evidence such as logs, telemetry, screenshots, and configuration state for triage
• Drive issues through intake, severity assessment, ownership, workaround or fix delivery, and closure
• Convert recurring field issues into support tickets, knowledge-base content, runbooks, and product feedback
• Partner with engineering, product, sustainment, licensing, safety, legal, and support teams to route issues to the right owner
• Support root-cause investigation and validate fixes or workarounds
• Support Field Service Representative-style obligations when required by contract

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years in field engineering, forward-deployed engineering, applications engineering, systems integration, flight test, robotics support, unmanned systems operations, technical operations, or custome
• Strong technical background in software engineering, systems integration, or autonomy-adjacent systems
• Proficiency writing, reading, and debugging modern C++
• Working proficiency with Python, Bash, or similar scripting
• Strong troubleshooting across Linux or embedded systems, networking, configuration management, logs, telemetry, and operator workflows
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, training, and escalation skills in customer-facing environments
• Ability to write clear field notes, deployment records, troubleshooting guides, and support updates
• Willingness and ability to travel at least 50% of the time, including multi-week deployments
• Ability to operate professionally in lab, flight-test, range, customer-site, and field environments under time pressure
• Ability to comply with export-control, security, safety, sensitive-data, and mission-specific operating requirements

Nice to have

• Experience with autonomy, robotics, defense aviation, unmanned aircraft, flight test, payload integration, sensors, or edge compute
• Experience supporting defense, government, allied, or international customers in operational, test, or overseas environments
• Experience building or scaling a support, field-service, or sustainment function during an early product rollout
• Experience with enterprise software deployment, licensing, provisioning, release management, or offline/air-gapped environments
• Hands-on experience with recorded-data analysis, diagnostic tooling, telemetry review, or support automation
• FAA Part 107, military aviation or maintenance background, UAS operator experience, or prior Field Service Representative experience
• Experience using GenAI tools to accelerate troubleshooting, documentation, or support workflow automation
• Active or prior security clearance, or eligibility to obtain one when required

Benefits

• Bonus
• Equity
• Benefits for full-time regular employees
• Temporary benefits package for temporary employees (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Before you apply

• All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check
• Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits
• Salary depends on factors including skill set, experience, licenses and certifications, and work location

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.