Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment (R5497)
Application analysis
Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment (R5497) at Shield AI is a forward deployed defense / aerospace role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Forward Deployed Engineer role centers on embedded customer delivery — discovery, prototyping, integration, and production rollout. Key signals from the listing: Customer on-site travel.
About Shield AI
Defense technology companies combine startup velocity with government deployment constraints and security requirements. The role is anchored in United States, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment (R5497)
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment (R5497) to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Shield AI hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Prepare a 5-minute “week one on site” plan: who you would meet, what you would inspect in their stack, and what artifact you would deliver by day five.
- Show you can go from discovery notes → working integration → production checklist without needing a large internal team.
- This role is tied to United States — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at Shield AI
- Demonstrate clearance readiness with a concrete example — Shield AI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate operational rigor with a concrete example — Shield AI will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Highlight classified or regulated environment experience and comfort with on-site customer work.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on shield.ai — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role 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. 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.