Senior Manager, Systems Engineering and Test (R6535)

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-BAT aircraft, 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:

Shield AI's Australian engineering team brings together Hivemind Vision, which develops AI-enabled computer vision and wide-area motion imagery capabilities, and Hivemind Solutions, which integrates Hivemind autonomy onto unmanned systems (UxS) and customer platforms. As Senior Manager, Engineering, you will build and lead the functions that make this work dependable and deliverable across both teams: Systems Engineering, Software Test, and Quality Process Engineering.

You will own the systems engineering and assurance processes that shape how the Australian team delivers products, from early architecture decisions through integration, flight test, and release. You will set technical direction, define process, develop leaders, and ensure the engineering evidence behind every release is clear, traceable, and trusted by customers, partners, and Shield AI's global engineering teams.

This role spans both Hivemind Vision and Hivemind Solutions and works closely with perception, autonomy, integration, flight test, program management, and international engineering teams. The ideal candidate has defence, aerospace, or autonomy experience and a proven track record of building engineering processes that teams adopt and customers value.

What you'll do:

• Build, lead, and grow the Australian Systems Engineering, Software Test, and Quality Process Engineering teams, including hiring, developing technical leads, and setting clear performance expectations.
• Establish a common, right-sized engineering, test, and quality baseline across Hivemind Vision and Hivemind Solutions, while respecting the different needs of each team's products and customers.
• Own the systems engineering lifecycle for Australian programs, including stakeholder needs, requirements, architecture, interface control documents (ICDs), traceability, and verification planning.
• Define and lead the software test strategy across unit, integration, simulation, software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and flight-test environments.
• Lead the maturation of the Australian Engineering Management System (EMS) and establish and maintain quality engineering practices, for example, configuration management, design assurance, and nonconformance and corrective action.
• Champion and define criteria for formal technical reviews (e.g., SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR) and provide authoritative recommendations on design maturity, test readiness, risk, and release decisions.
• Drive test automation, continuous integration, and engineering metrics that make verification evidence repeatable, measurable, and efficient to produce.
• Partner with Shield AI's international engineering teams to align global processes and tooling with Australian program.
• Contribute systems engineering, test, and quality content to proposals, statements of work, and program plans.
• Report technical health, risks, and quality metrics to engineering and program leadership, and drive timely resolution of issues.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Systems, Electrical, Computer, Software, or Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
• 12+ years of engineering experience in aerospace, defence, or other safety- or mission-critical industries
• 5+ years leading engineering teams, including managing technical leads or managers
• Hands-on experience across the systems engineering lifecycle, including requirements management, architecture, ICDs, and verification and validation
• Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) using SysML or equivalent methods and tools (e.g., Cameo Systems Modeler)
• Proven experience defining and running software test programs across simulation, SIL, HIL, and live-vehicle or flight-test environments
• Experience leading formal technical reviews and producing evidence for customer acceptance or airworthiness approval
• Experience with requirements and test management tools (e.g., Jama, DOORS, Polarion, Jira) and automated testing
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical risk to engineers, executives, and customers
• Ability to obtain an Australian NV1 security clearance
• Ability to comply with export-control (e.g., ITAR, EAR, and the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012), security, safety, and customer-site requirements

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with computer vision, perception, or imaging-sensor systems
• Experience with unmanned systems, autonomy, or robotics programs
• Experience establishing or operating a quality management system (e.g., AS9100 or ISO 9001), including configuration management and corrective action
• Software assurance or DevSecOps experience in regulated or certifiable environments
• Professional certification such as Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) with Engineers Australia, INCOSE CSEP/ESEP, ASQ CQE or CMQ/OE, or ISTQB

Help us redefine what’s possible in AI-driven perception — apply today!

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, 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.