Senior Manager, Systems Engineering and Test (R6535)

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. 

Shield AI's Australian engineering team brings together Hivemind Vision, which develops AI-enabled computer vision and wide-area motion imagery capabilities, and Hivemind Solutions, which integrates Hivemind autonomy onto unmanned systems (UxS) and customer platforms. As Senior Manager, Engineering, you will build and lead the functions that make this work dependable and deliverable across both teams: Systems Engineering, Software Test, and Quality Process Engineering.

You will own the systems engineering and assurance processes that shape how the Australian team delivers products, from early architecture decisions through integration, flight test, and release. You will set technical direction, define process, develop leaders, and ensure the engineering evidence behind every release is clear, traceable, and trusted by customers, partners, and Shield AI's global engineering teams.

This role spans both Hivemind Vision and Hivemind Solutions and works closely with perception, autonomy, integration, flight test, program management, and international engineering teams. The ideal candidate has defence, aerospace, or autonomy experience and a proven track record of building engineering processes that teams adopt and customers value.

Build, lead, and grow the Australian Systems Engineering, Software Test, and Quality Process Engineering teams, including hiring, developing technical leads, and setting clear performance expectations.

Establish a common, right-sized engineering, test, and quality baseline across Hivemind Vision and Hivemind Solutions, while respecting the different needs of each team's products and customers.

Own the systems engineering lifecycle for Australian programs, including stakeholder needs, requirements, architecture, interface control documents (ICDs), traceability, and verification planning.

Define and lead the software test strategy across unit, integration, simulation, software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and flight-test environments.

Lead the maturation of the Australian Engineering Management System (EMS) and establish and maintain quality engineering practices, for example, configuration management, design assurance, and nonconformance and corrective action.

Champion and define criteria for formal technical reviews (e.g., SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR) and provide authoritative recommendations on design maturity, test readiness, risk, and release decisions.

Drive test automation, continuous integration, and engineering metrics that make verification evidence repeatable, measurable, and efficient to produce.

Partner with Shield AI's international engineering teams to align global processes and tooling with Australian program.

Contribute systems engineering, test, and quality content to proposals, statements of work, and program plans.

Report technical health, risks, and quality metrics to engineering and program leadership, and drive timely resolution of issues.

Bachelor's degree or higher in Systems, Electrical, Computer, Software, or Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field

12+ years of engineering experience in aerospace, defence, or other safety- or mission-critical industries

5+ years leading engineering teams, including managing technical leads or managers

Hands-on experience across the systems engineering lifecycle, including requirements management, architecture, ICDs, and verification and validation

Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) using SysML or equivalent methods and tools (e.g., Cameo Systems Modeler)

Proven experience defining and running software test programs across simulation, SIL, HIL, and live-vehicle or flight-test environments

Experience leading formal technical reviews and producing evidence for customer acceptance or airworthiness approval

Experience with requirements and test management tools (e.g., Jama, DOORS, Polarion, Jira) and automated testing

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical risk to engineers, executives, and customers

Ability to obtain an Australian NV1 security clearance 

Ability to comply with export-control (e.g., ITAR, EAR, and the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012), security, safety, and customer-site requirements

Experience with computer vision, perception, or imaging-sensor systems

Experience with unmanned systems, autonomy, or robotics programs

Experience establishing or operating a quality management system (e.g., AS9100 or ISO 9001), including configuration management and corrective action

Software assurance or DevSecOps experience in regulated or certifiable environments

Professional certification such as Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) with Engineers Australia, INCOSE CSEP/ESEP, ASQ CQE or CMQ/OE, or ISTQB