# Senior Director, Hivemind Operations & Sustainment

**Company:** [Shield AI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/shield-ai)
**Location:** Washington, DC
**Role:** Engineering Management
**Salary:** $250k – $370k/yr
**Experience:** 15+ years
**Skills:** Systems Engineering, Software Operations, Sustaining Engineering, Technical Support, Product Lifecycle Management, Software Deployment, Hardware Integration, Root Cause Analysis, Test And Evaluation, APIs, SDKs, AI/ML, Knowledge Management, Technical Documentation, Operational Metrics
**Posted:** 2026-09-04

> Leads the organization responsible for deploying, sustaining, supporting, and improving integrated Hivemind software and hardware products in customer environments. Requires 15 years of technical operations or lifecycle leadership experience, systems engineering expertise, and experience building operational organizations.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Build and lead the Operations & Sustainment organization supporting Hivemind software and VIDAR hardware throughout the product lifecycle.
- Lead customer installation, integration, and operational deployment of Hivemind Enterprise software and related solutions.
- Develop repeatable deployment methodologies, tools, and best practices to improve customer outcomes.
- Own customer education, training curricula, technical publications, installation guides, troubleshooting documentation, operational manuals, and knowledge management.
- Create playbooks and technical content for Forward Deployed Engineers, Customer Support Engineers, and field personnel.
- Lead sustaining engineering for products operating in customer environments, including configuration management, upgrades, deployment support, issue resolution, and operational readiness.
- Drive issue documentation, reproduction, prioritization, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions across product engineering organizations.
- Lead validation and verification for hardware repairs, bug fixes, and software updates.
- Establish and manage technical customer support engineering, including triage, prioritization, routing, service-level objectives, operational metrics, and feedback capture.
- Establish systems engineering practices, standard operating procedures, workflows, quality standards, governance, dashboards, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Serve as the operational interface across Engineering, Program Management, Customer Success, Forward Deployed Engineering, and Customer Support.
- Translate customer and operational insights into product improvements while balancing responsiveness with long-term product quality.

## Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
- 15 years of experience leading software operations, sustaining engineering, technical support, or product lifecycle organizations.
- Experience with government, defense, or mission-critical software systems.
- Experience supporting sustainment or integrated logistics support organizations for integrated hardware and software products.
- Demonstrated success building operational organizations from the ground up for product and customer delivery teams.
- Strong systems engineering mindset and experience establishing scalable operational processes.
- Experience leading cross-functional technical teams through complex customer issues and product improvements.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

## Nice-to-haves
- Experience with AI/ML platforms or autonomous systems.
- Experience with software development kits, APIs, or developer platforms.
- Experience supporting both commercial software products and customized customer solutions.
- Familiarity with technical training development, knowledge management, and documentation systems.

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