# Forward Deployed Engineer, Operations & Sustainment

**Company:** [Shield AI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/shield-ai)
**Location:** San Diego, CA, Washington, DC
**Role:** Solutions Architecture
**Salary:** $150k – $230k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** C++, Python, Bash, Linux, Networking, configuration management, telemetry, Robotics, autonomy, systems integration, unmanned aircraft, edge computing, flight test, Generative AI
**Posted:** 2026-08-04

> Deploy, troubleshoot, and sustain Hivemind autonomy products in customer operating environments while translating field issues into durable support processes and product feedback. Requires 5+ years of hands-on technical experience, C++ and scripting proficiency, strong customer communication, and willingness to travel at least 50%.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Deploy with customers on site globally, with a minimum expectation of 50% travel, supporting installation, configuration, validation, training, troubleshooting, and sustainment of Hivemind products.
- Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise software stack, autonomy modules, deployment tooling, supported configurations, and diagnostic workflows.
- Execute and improve deployment runbooks covering software installation, version and configuration validation, licensing or provisioning status, pre-mission checks, log readiness, and acceptance steps.
- Provide hands-on technical support to customer operators, maintainers, partners, and internal field teams during deployment, test, training, demonstration, and sustainment windows.
- Capture and organize field evidence for triage, including logs, telemetry, recorded data, screenshots, version and configuration state, asset context, operator notes, mission phase, and environmental constraints.
- Drive issues through intake, severity assessment, ownership, workaround or fix delivery, customer-safe status updates, closure, and the learning loop.
- Convert recurring field issues, workarounds, customer questions, and training gaps into support tickets, knowledge-base content, known-issue records, runbooks, and product feedback.
- Partner with engineering, product, program, sustainment, licensing, safety, legal, commercial, and support teams to route issues to the right owner.
- Support root-cause investigation and corrective-action validation by reproducing issues, collecting field context, testing updates, and confirming fixes or workarounds.
- Support Field Service Representative-style obligations when required, including on-site support, issue intake, operator assistance, troubleshooting, documentation, escalation, and evidence capture.

## Example Projects
- Deploy Hivemind software and autonomy capabilities during customer integration events, exercises, test campaigns, demonstrations, or operational support windows.
- Build deployment-to-sustainment handoff packages with supported baselines, configuration checklists, evidence checklists, known issues, escalation contacts, and training material.
- Establish repeatable support flows for field issues, including a support hub, severity model, ownership routes, and closure loop.
- Troubleshoot field behavior across software, autonomy, networking, telemetry, configuration, sensors, operator workflows, and customer-environment constraints.
- Create customer-safe documentation that helps operators and maintainers self-serve routine issues while preserving escalation paths for mission-critical problems.

## Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years of experience in field engineering, forward-deployed engineering, applications engineering, systems integration, flight test, robotics support, unmanned systems operations, technical operations, customer deployment, or a similar hands-on technical role.
- Strong technical background in software engineering, systems integration, or autonomy-adjacent systems.
- Proficiency writing, reading, and debugging modern C++ code.
- Working proficiency with Python, Bash, or similar scripting for diagnostics, automation, data handling, and field-support workflows.
- Strong troubleshooting skills across Linux or embedded systems, networking, configuration management, logs, telemetry, release packages, sensors or payloads, and operator workflows.
- Excellent problem-solving, communication, training, expectation-management, and escalation skills in customer-facing environments.
- Ability to write clear field notes, deployment records, troubleshooting guides, evidence packages, and support updates.
- Willingness and ability to travel at least 50% of the time, including frequent domestic and international travel and multi-week deployments.
- Ability to operate professionally in lab, flight-test, range, customer-site, and field environments under time pressure.
- Ability to comply with export-control, security, safety, sensitive-data, customer-site, and mission-specific operating requirements.

## Nice-to-Haves
- Experience with autonomy, robotics, defense aviation, unmanned aircraft, deployed defense systems, flight test, payload integration, sensors, operator systems, or edge-compute environments.
- Experience supporting defense, government, allied, or international customers in operational, test, training, or overseas environments.
- Experience building or scaling a support, field-service, customer-success, sustainment, or applications-engineering function during an early product rollout.
- Experience with enterprise software deployment, customer support, licensing, provisioning, release management, configuration baselines, or offline/air-gapped operating environments.
- Hands-on experience with recorded-data analysis, diagnostic tooling, telemetry review, networking tools, system health checks, or support automation.
- FAA Part 107, military aviation or maintenance background, UAS operator experience, flight-test experience, systems engineering experience, or prior Field Service Representative experience.
- Experience using GenAI tools for troubleshooting, documentation, knowledge capture, data review, or support workflow automation.
- Active or prior security clearance, or eligibility to obtain one when required.

## Compensation
- Annual salary: $150,000–$230,000.

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