# Director, Systems Engineering & Architecture - Hivemind Enterprise at Shield AI

Shield AI is hiring a Director, Systems Engineering & Architecture - Hivemind Enterprise in San Diego, United States. It pays $215k-$325k a year and Level rates it Little AI ●○○○; you can [apply on Shield AI](https://jobsbylevel.com/go/6161c923-7592-498a-9e32-b1b1090af54c?utm_medium=ai-agent).

AI Level 1, AI centrality 25 out of 100. San Diego, California.

## Details

- Company: [Shield AI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/shield-ai)
- AI level: AI Level 1 (score 25 out of 100)
- Location: San Diego, California
- Salary: $215k-$325k
- Posted: November 6, 2026
- Apply: https://jobsbylevel.com/go/6161c923-7592-498a-9e32-b1b1090af54c?utm_medium=ai-agent
- Free CV review for this job: https://jobsbylevel.com/cv-review?job=director-systems-engineering-architecture-hivemind-enterprise-at-shield-ai-bcaae9

## Description

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 . We are seeking a Director of Systems Engineering & Architecture (SE&A) for Shield AI’s Hivemind Enterprise organization, supporting development of our autonomy platform and development ecosystem for AI Pilots. This leader will oversee Systems Engineering, System Architecture, Cybersecurity Engineering, and Safety/Airworthiness Engineering, building the teams and technical practices needed to deliver dependable, software-intensive autonomous systems. You will connect operational product needs to measurable requirements, coherent architectures, and credible verification and assurance evidence. Partnering with Product, Software Engineering, Program Management, and Integration and Test teams, you will embed practical engineering rigor throughout the development lifecycle. What You'll Do: Lead the team: Hire, develop, and lead the SE&A engineering disciplines, establishing clear responsibilities, technical standards, and effective cross-functional partnerships. Establish the operating model: Define how SE&A engages with product and engineering teams, prioritizes competing demands, and allocates resources. Establish clear decision rights, escalation paths, and risk-proportionate engineering practices that improve delivery without unnecessary process overhead. Own requirements and architecture: Guide requirements development and management, system modeling, architectural trade studies, interface definition, traceability, and change impact analysis. Drive verification and validation planning: Establish system-level verification and validation strategies, measurable acceptance criteria, and evidence expectations. Partner with integration and test teams to demonstrate end-to-end capability. Support software development: Integrate systems engineering and architecture into iterative planning, design, implementation, testing, release readiness, and sustainment. Lead integrated assurance: Ensure cybersecurity, safety, and airworthiness considerations shape requirements, architecture, development, and verification from the outset. Guide technical decisions: Lead risk-based design reviews, resolve cross-team technical issues, and provide evidence-based readiness recommendations while preserving designated approval and risk-acceptance authorities. Improve engineering effectiveness: Establish and continuously improve practical methods, models, and workflows that connect requirements, architecture, implementation, and evidence. Measure success through earlier risk discovery, reduced rework, improved integration and release predictability, and timely closure of verification and assurance gaps. What You'll Bring: At least 15 years of applied systems engineering experience with complex, multidisciplinary systems, including direct involvement in development, integration, verification, and delivery. Leadership: Demonstrated success leading engineering teams and senior technical talent, setting technical direction, and driving execution across organizational boundaries. Requirements engineering: Deep experience with requirements development and management, including decomposition, allocation, traceability, interface requirements, baselining, and change control. Architecture and modeling: Demonstrated ability to develop system architectures and use system models to analyze structure, behavior, interfaces, constraints, and design tradeoffs. Verification and validation: Experience defining verification methods, measurable acceptance

The description is cut here. Read the full offer: https://jobsbylevel.com/jobs/director-systems-engineering-architecture-hivemind-enterprise-at-shield-ai-bcaae9

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/jobs/director-systems-engineering-architecture-hivemind-enterprise-at-shield-ai-bcaae9

## Cite this page

Level. https://jobsbylevel.com/jobs/director-systems-engineering-architecture-hivemind-enterprise-at-shield-ai-bcaae9.

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