Lead, Platform Applications (R3434)

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Boston, Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Instagram.

Hivemind Forge is an innovative simulation, data engineering, and infrastructure team at Shield AI. The team drives excellence in designing, testing, deploying, and evaluating instances of Hivemind Pilot and Commander. As Shield AI's AI Factory, Forge implements SDKs, CLIs, and webapps to enable the development of advanced autonomous systems. With a focus on versatility, Forge develops tools that empower developers across environments - from cloud-based solutions and on-premises systems to local developer laptops. The team is dedicated to advancing autonomy and delivering exceptional user experiences through robust, scalable, and developer-friendly solutions.

As the lead for Platform Applications on the Hivemind Forge team, you will lead a cross-functional group of frontend, fullstack, and platform engineers responsible for developing powerful, multi-context applications used by autonomy teams working at the cutting edge of AI. These applications operate seamlessly across local and cloud environments and span a wide range of domains, including data science, data engineering, machine learning, observability, and configuration tooling.

You will provide both technical and organizational leadership for a team of 5-10 engineers. In addition to mentoring and guiding the team, you’ll remain hands-on in architecture and implementation, ensuring technical rigor and thoughtful design across our application portfolio. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers and stakeholders across autonomy, simulation, infrastructure, product, and design to deliver cohesive tools that power autonomy workflows from development through deployment.

We are looking for a deeply technical and entrepreneurial leader with strong communication skills and the breadth to operate across a diverse set of platforms and technologies. We are open to manager- director level candidates. You should be excited to shape the future of tools that help autonomy teams build, test, analyze, and ship mission-critical systems. We’re open to candidates at varying levels of seniority—including Manager, Senior Manager, or Director—for the right individual with the right mix of leadership and technical depth.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Lead and mentor a team of frontend engineers, helping them grow their skills, meet career goals, and deliver high-quality software.
• Drive technical decisions and architecture for the Forge web application and its integration with backend APIs, data pipelines, and autonomy tooling.
• Stay hands-on, contributing to complex feature development and code reviews across React and TypeScript-based frontends, and Go and Python backends.
• Coordinate cross-functionally with product managers, designers, and teams across simulation, autonomy, and analysis to align roadmaps and execution.
• Deliver user interfaces for advanced autonomy workflows - including simulation visualization, data analysis, and agent configuration tools.
• Establish and maintain UI quality standards through design systems, reusable components, automated testing, and robust documentation.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and collaboration within the team and the broader organization.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 10+ years of experience designing and developing production-grade software systems.
• 6+ years of experience building and integrating frontend systems with RESTful APIs and backend services.
• 3+ years of experience as a team lead or engineering manager, with demonstrated success in growing and mentoring engineers.
• Strong fullstack development background, including deep experience with React and TypeScript.
• Proficiency in backend development using Python or Go.
• Strong architecture and design skills, particularly for scalable and extensible frontend systems.
• Experience developing tools or platforms in complex environments, such as data science, simulation, or systems engineering.
• Excellent communication skills and a track record of cross-functional collaboration in fast-paced, technical organizations.
• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience with WebGL, geospatial data, or simulation tooling.
• Familiarity with WebSockets, WebRTC, or real-time data streaming.
• Eye for design and UX sensibilities, including application of design systems.
• Experience developing or contributing to an SDK.
• Experience with frontend testing frameworks, particularly Playwright.
• Exposure to Electron, egui, desktop-class web applications, or hybrid apps.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Docker, and cloud environments (Azure, GCP, or AWS).

$180,000 - $330,000 a year

Full-time regular employee offer package:

Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.