Shield AI
Senior Staff Engineer, Mission Architect (R5876)
$190K–$280K
Washington, D.C. · On-site · Senior Staff · Full-time · Posted Sep 9, 2026
- Experience
- 5+ years; no stated alternative.
About the job
Develops mission analyses and architectures to connect operational needs with autonomous-system capabilities, requirements, and engineering decisions.
What you'll do
- Build mission models, architectures, CONOPS, and traceable autonomy requirements using systems engineering and modeling and simulation methods.
- Conduct trade studies and sensitivity analyses to assess mission effects, capability gaps, system dependencies, and performance.
- Work with engineering teams and defense stakeholders to characterize missions and present analyses and recommendations.
What they ask for
- 5+ years of experience in mission engineering, systems engineering, operational analysis, modeling & simulation (M&S), or a related discipline.
- Experience in mission-thread analysis, force-on-force analysis, capability-gap analysis, CONOPS development, or military campaign modeling.
- Proficiency with SysML or other systems engineering tools alongside AFSIM, STK, MATLAB, or Python for aerospace and defense applications.
- Experience with DoD stakeholders, warfighters, and government agencies; ability to translate mission needs into system capabilities, requirements, and engineering trades.
Nice to have
- Experience with MBSE, digital engineering, and SysML 2.0.
- Familiarity with DoD Mission Engineering methodologies, systems-of-systems engineering, DoD acquisition processes, or JCIDS.
Pay
USD 190,000–280,000 per year base salary
Tools
Cameo, Sysml 2.0, AFSIM, STK, MATLAB, Python
AI focus
Develop mission engineering artifacts for AI-driven autonomous capabilities; preferred experience includes integrating AI-driven decision-making algorithms or autonomous systems into mission engineering and operational analysis frameworks.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative