Staff Engineer, DevOps (R4666)
Shield AI
Software Engineering
San Diego, CA, USA
USD 150k-220k / year + Equity
Posted on Mar 13, 2026
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the 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.
Job Description:
As a DevOps Engineer, you’ll own our CI/CD and automation stack — driving developer velocity, pipeline health, and large-scale test execution from single-agent runs to cluster-orchestrated mission scenarios. This is a hands-on IC role that removes bottlenecks, accelerates iteration, and ensures every engineer can test and ship with speed and rigor.
What you'll do:
- Own and operate the CI/CD system across autonomy, embedded, and ground software.
- Improve developer velocity by reducing build/test cycle time and eliminating pipeline bottlenecks.
- Scale simulation test execution in CI — from containerized single-agent runs to orchestrated clusters.
- Manage infrastructure for builds and tests (Azure DevOps, Git, Artifactory, cloud build agents).
- Fully automate common tasks to create a self-service DevOps model allowing developers to be fully empowered.
- Partner with developers to resolve build/test failures quickly and set best practices for integration.
- Integrate CI pipelines with HIL and simulation environments for automated validation.
- Implement monitoring, dashboards, and alerts for CI/CD health and performance.
- Collaborate with the Developer Ops teams across Shield AI to introduce new technologies, best practices, and shared standards.
Required qualifications:
- BS in CS, CE, EE, or related field with 7+ years industry experience (or MS/PhD with 5+ years).
- Strong expertise in CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
- Proficiency with containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, cloud build clusters).
- Strong scripting skills (Python, Bash, PowerShell).
- Hands-on experience integrating automated testing into CI pipelines.
- Demonstrated success improving developer productivity at scale.
- Demonstrated track record of excellence as a primary contributor on projects - showcasing the ability to navigate through development cycles, overcome obstacles, and deliver high-quality solutions in a fast-paced environment
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience building simulation or HIL-based test pipelines.
- Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible) and monitoring (Grafana, Prometheus).
- Background in robotics, autonomy, or aerospace systems.
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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.
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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.
150000 - 220000 USD a year