Director, Ops Analysis (R5036)

Shield AI•Washington, DC

125d•$210,000 - $320,000

About The Position

Shield AI is seeking a Director, Operations Analysis to lead the Hivemind Solutions Operations Analysis team. The team turns operational problems into quantitative insights that shape product strategy, engineering priorities, customer engagement, and mission outcomes. It uses modeling, simulation, wargaming, campaign analysis, and mission-level trade studies to inform what Hivemind should build, why it matters, and how it performs in realistic operational contexts. This leadership role operates at the intersection of autonomy, military operations, mission engineering, modeling and simulation, product strategy, and customer-facing analysis. The Director will grow a high-performing team and establish an analytical capability that is technically credible, rigorous, and able to translate complex operational questions into clear recommendations for executives, engineers, business development leaders, and government customers. The role connects Hivemind’s technical capabilities to measurable operational outcomes, informing product decisions and helping customers understand the mission impact of intelligent autonomous systems. Success means building a trusted, fast-moving, operationally grounded decision engine whose work shapes product development, prioritization, customer engagement, and trade decisions across product lines. The position offers an annual salary range of $210,000–$320,000. The full-time regular employee offer package includes pay within the listed range, bonus, benefits, and equity. Compensation depends on factors including skills, experience, licenses and certifications, and work location. Offers are contingent on a cleared background and may require a reference check.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations research, applied mathematics, computer science, physics, aerospace, systems engineering, data science, or a related technical field.
10+ years of relevant experience in operations analysis, mission analysis, modeling and simulation, systems analysis, military analysis, campaign analysis, or related technical domains.
5+ years of experience leading teams, projects, or technical analysis efforts.
Experience using modeling and simulation to inform real product, system, program, or operational decisions.
Strong understanding of military operations, mission planning, force employment, kill chains, sensing, communications, autonomy, aircraft systems, weapons systems, or related defense concepts.
Ability to translate ambiguous operational questions into structured analysis plans, quantitative methods, and decision-quality outputs.
Experience working with engineering, product, business development, strategy, or customer-facing teams.
Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders and customers clearly, confidently, and with analytical discipline.
Ability to work in a fast-paced environment where priorities evolve quickly and analysis must support real business and technical decisions.
U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD in operations research, engineering, applied mathematics, data science, aerospace, systems engineering, or a related technical field.
Experience with AFSIM, NGTS, STK, MATLAB, Python, Cameo, custom simulation environments, or other mission and campaign analysis tools.
Experience analyzing autonomous systems, collaborative autonomy, uncrewed aircraft, crewed-uncrewed teaming, electronic warfare, space systems, missile systems, maritime systems, or air combat operations.
Experience supporting defense product development, advanced concepts, government capture efforts, experimentation, test planning, or mission engineering.
Familiarity with model validation, verification, credibility assessment, sensitivity analysis, design of experiments, and uncertainty quantification.
Experience building analysis teams, establishing technical standards, and scaling analytical capabilities across multiple stakeholders or product lines.
Prior military, government laboratory, FFRDC/UARC, defense contractor, or aerospace experience.
Active U.S. security clearance.

Responsibilities

Lead and manage the Hivemind Solutions Operations Analysis team, including hiring, mentoring, prioritization, performance management, and technical direction.
Build an operations analysis capability that informs Hivemind product strategy, autonomy roadmap decisions, customer pursuits, and program execution.
Define and execute mission analysis, campaign analysis, force-on-force studies, CONOPS evaluations, and operational trade studies across multiple product domains.
Partner with Product, Architecture, Systems Engineering, Business Development, Strategy, and Program teams to translate operational problems into analytical studies and actionable product recommendations.
Develop analysis plans connecting mission objectives, operational assumptions, threat environments, system performance, autonomy behaviors, and measurable mission outcomes.
Guide the use of modeling and simulation tools and environments to evaluate mission effectiveness and operational value.
Establish standards for analytical rigor, model credibility, assumption tracking, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty characterization, and communication of results.
Create executive-ready briefings explaining the analysis, assumptions, results, and resulting decisions.
Support customer engagements with technically grounded analysis demonstrating the operational value of Hivemind-enabled systems.
Work with engineering teams to identify autonomy behaviors, system capabilities, interfaces, performance parameters, and test data needed to improve model fidelity.
Help shape product requirements by connecting operational outcomes to measurable system and autonomy performance needs.
Build reusable analysis frameworks, scenarios, vignettes, and metrics that scale across programs and domains.
Represent the Operations Analysis function in internal technical reviews, roadmap discussions, capture strategy sessions, and customer-facing meetings.