Shield AI
Staff Engineer, Operations Analyst (R5807)
$157K–$235K
Washington, D.C. · On-site · Staff · Full-time · Posted Sep 8, 2026
- Experience
- 7+ years in operational analysis, modeling & simulation (M&S), or military operations research.
About the job
Leads operational analysis, modeling, simulation, and wargaming to evaluate autonomous aircraft performance and inform system design and mission capabilities.
What you'll do
- Develop and lead operational analysis, modeling, simulation, and wargaming of autonomous aircraft in military scenarios.
- Conduct trade studies and analyze mission effectiveness, survivability, threats, and system performance.
- Translate operational insights into design decisions and communicate findings to stakeholders through reports and briefings.
What they ask for
- Expertise in military mission analysis, operational planning, and wargaming methodologies.
- Proficiency with AFSIM, STK, MATLAB, or other aerospace and defense M&S tools.
- Deep understanding of air combat, ISR, electronic warfare, or autonomous systems in contested environments.
- Experience with DoD stakeholders and applying modern compute, data science, and software development practices to simulations and analytics.
Nice to have
- Experience with force-on-force analysis, CONOPS development, campaign modeling, or DoD acquisition processes.
- Experience integrating AI-driven decision-making or using GenAI to create simulation or analysis tools.
Pay
USD 157,000–235,000 per-year-salary; base salary
Tools
AFSIM, STK, MATLAB, Python, Git, CI/CD
AI focus
Analyzes AI-powered and autonomous aircraft capabilities, including autonomy-driven decision-making; preferred work includes integrating AI-driven algorithms and using GenAI to create simulation or analysis tools.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative