Principal Engineer, Systems (R5048)

Shield AI•San Diego, CA

17d

About The Position

Shield AI’s Hivemind Platform organization is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to lead and scale systems engineering excellence across our software-intensive, autonomy-driven platform. This role sits within the Systems Engineering, Integration, and Test (SEIT) organization and is responsible for advancing systems engineering discipline, rigor, and cross-functional alignment across the full lifecycle, from requirements definition through architecture, verification, and assurance. This individual will play a critical role in shaping how complex autonomous system development capabilities are specified, architected, and validated, with a strong emphasis on model-based systems engineering (MBSE), requirements traceability, and integration of system assurance (including safety) into system design.

Requirements

15+ years in Systems Engineering, Architecture, or technical leadership roles
Experience in defense or aerospace, ideally with software-intensive unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)
Strong background in traceable requirements development, system architecture and interface definition, and V&V planning
Hands-on experience with MBSE tools (Cameo Systems Modeler or equivalent) and SysML
Proven ability to lead engineering discipline across teams and influence technical direction
Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Nice To Haves

Experience integrating system safety and assurance practices into engineering workflows
Familiarity with certification standards such as MIL-HDBK-516C and CMMC/NIST SP 800-53
Advanced degree in engineering or related field

Responsibilities

Drive the adoption and enforcement of systems engineering best practices across the organization, serving as a technical authority and trusted partner to engineering leadership.
Lead the development of structured, testable, and fully traceable system requirements, ensuring end-to-end linkage across architecture, verification, and implementation.
Define and maintain system architectures using MBSE methodologies and tools (e.g., Cameo), promoting model-centric engineering for system understanding and decision-making.
Establish comprehensive, executable verification strategies aligned with system requirements and operational use cases, supporting integration and test efforts.
Integrate system safety and security assurance considerations into requirements, architecture, and verification to support mission assurance and compliance objectives.
Partner with software architects, product teams, test engineers, and engineering leadership to align system-level decisions/execution across the organization and bridge between SEIT and the broader engineering organization.