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

Shield AI is hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment - open level (R5497) in San Diego, United States. It pays $156k-$320k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Shield AI.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this forward deployed engineer role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
Tools and skills the posting cites include systems engineering, troubleshooting and deployment.
Level lists 667 other open roles at Shield AI.

AI in this role

Deploy and sustain autonomous intelligent software systems in field environments as a customer-facing engineer.

systems-engineeringtroubleshootingdeployment

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 builds intelligent systems that protect service members and civilians. Our products include Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and our teams support customers and operations across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

The Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment is a highly technical, customer-facing role focused on deploying, supporting, and sustaining Hivemind products in real operating environments. This role bridges field deployment, customer operations, technical troubleshooting, training, and sustainment.

This is a travel-intensive role. Candidates must be willing and able to travel at least 50% of the time, including frequent domestic and international trips, customer-site work, test events, training events, and multi-week deployments as program needs require.

In this role, you will work directly with customers and internal teams to install, configure, validate, train, troubleshoot, and support Hivemind products. The role requires strong technical judgment, clear customer communication, comfort operating under field pressure, and the discipline to turn field lessons into durable support artifacts: runbooks, supported baselines, evidence packages, known-issue records, escalation paths, customer-safe updates, and product feedback.

How we rate this

Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment - open level (R5497) at Shield AI rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment - open level (R5497) is an open job at Shield AI.
Level rates this role AI Level 3 of 4: Works on AI.
The listed salary is $156k-$320k a year.
The role is based in San Diego, California.
The job was posted on August 4, 2026.
Applications are handled by Shield AI. Apply on Shield AI

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Systems EngineeringTroubleshootingDeployment

Also common in forward deployed engineer jobs at this level

Python TypeScript LLM JavaScript AI agents AWS

Pay

This job starts at: $156k
Typical forward deployed engineer job: $182k

This posting starts 14% below the typical forward deployed engineer job. See forward deployed engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where systems engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where troubleshooting was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where deployment was part of your work. What did you do?
Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
If you removed AI from this role, what would be left, and how do you decide what still needs a human?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Systems Engineering, Troubleshooting, and Deployment. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.

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