Senior Manager, Applications Engineering

Senior Manager, Solutions Engineering

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind EnterpriseEdgeOS, Pilot, Commander, and Forgeas well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI's technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide.

Software Integration & Operations (SIO) is a tightly integrated group of cross-functional engineers as our mission requires subject-matter expertise in software design & development, aircraft simulation, system integration & testing, and release engineering. Thus, SIO is composed of functions with breadth, depth, and track record of success across the range of expertise & experience warranted.

The primary mission of this group is to ensure all software products created by Aircraft SW & Autonomy can be developed, tested, and released to & accepted by end users as quickly as possible, without suffering in product quality. To do so, the group must also build solutions that allow our internal flight operation and manufacturing teams to efficiently operate & use our aircraft software products.

We are looking for an engineer leader to build and grow the new Solutions team serving our daily aircraft flight and production operations. The Solutions Engineering Manager will drive the design, implementation, and long-term sustainment of operational software tools that power internal and external aircraft operations. This individual will lead a small, high-impact team to deliver full-stack software solutions enabling capabilities such as OTA updates, operator training, maintenance management, and flight data analytics. They will collaborate cross-functionally across SIO, Ground Control Software, Customer Success, and Production teams to deeply understand user needs and translate them into scalable, integrated applications.

This role blends technical leadership, engineering execution, and team developmentideal for a full-stack engineer ready to guide architecture decisions, set engineering standards, and ensure long-term product ownership.

What You'll Do :

• Lead Architecture & Execution : Define and drive end-to-end architecture of scalable applications (backend services, databases, UIs) supporting OTA, maintenance tracking, training tools, and more.
• Own Team Roadmap : Translate high-level charter goals into concrete deliverables, manage technical priorities, and track progress toward scalable, sustainable solutions.
• Build & Mentor : Grow and mentor a team of full-stack, application, and data engineers. Instill best practices in system design, testing, and deployment.
• Interface with Domain Stakeholders : Work directly with Customer Success and Production to build tools that address operational pain points, aligned with business workflows.
• Ensure Operational Excellence : Enforce system-level quality, security, traceability, and maintainability. Promote continuous integration and deployment practices.
• Collaborate Across SIO : Integrate your team's tools with upstream and downstream systems including DevOps pipelines, Simulation environments, GCS user interfaces, and Test infrastructure.
• Sustain What You Build : Own the long-term reliability and maintainability of deployed software solutions.

Required Qualifications :

Preferred Qualifications :

$186,972 - $280,458 a year

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 to equal 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.