Senior Engineer, Human Machine Teaming (R5651)

Shield AI
Washington, DC
On-siteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience in human-machine teaming within defense operations and a background in systems engineering.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with HMT experience in defense systems and systems engineering traceability expertise
    — “Map requirements profiles to systems engineering requirements and feature requests, and maintain traceability from operational need through test and acceptance.
  • Individuals who have worked on operator-autonomy relationship modeling in mission-critical environments
    — “Define requirements profiles by the operator-autonomy relationship, and document the associated mission risks.
  • Professionals with military or aircrew experience and a strong grasp of cognitive task analysis
    — “Prior work with military operators, pilots, or subject matter experts, or an aircrew background.

Things to consider

  • 20% travel requirement implies frequent site visits to test and demonstration locations
    — “Travel to company, test, demonstration, and customer locations to conduct project work (approximately 20%).
  • U.S. citizenship and clearance eligibility are mandatory, not negotiable
    — “U.S. DoD Secret clearance eligible, with the ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret, SCI, and/or SAP-level access. U.S. citizenship required.

How to stand out

  • Highlight cognitive task analysis projects and HMT standards development in your resume
    — “Working knowledge of human machine teaming, human factors, and human performance theory and measurement, including cognitive task analysis and knowledge elicitation.
  • Emphasize experience authoring design standards or review criteria used by teams
    — “Experience authoring design standards, style guides, or review criteria adopted by other teams.
  • Demonstrate proficiency with multivariate statistical analysis tools in your interview responses
    — “proficiency with multivariate statistical analyses and tools (e.g., SPSS, R, Python).
  • Showcase scenario design or simulation tool experience if available
    — “Experience with scenario design, and with modeling and simulation tools and methods.
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • evolving HMT workflow
  • advocating for human perceptual and cognitive considerations
Typical background
degree in human factors engineering or psychology2+ years of related experience

Skills & requirements

Required

Human Machine TeamingHuman Factors EngineeringRequirements ProfilingSystems EngineeringCollaboration With HMI And Ux/ui Designers

Preferred

Human-robot InteractionApplied Artificial IntelligenceMission Autonomy Applications

Stack & domain

PythonRSPSSDefenseTechnology

About the role

Original posting from Shield AI via Lever

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and 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:

The Human Machine Teaming (HMT) Group at Shield AI is hiring an Engineer II or Senior Engineer to join our HMT Design capability. At Shield AI, HMT refers to the design, management, and assurance of the adaptive relationships between operators and Hivemind-enabled mission autonomy—not just an interface problem, or a function-allocation exercise. Across industry, HMT is often an ad hoc practice, staffed with HMI/UX/UI rather than HMT specialists. In this role, you will implement a systematic, standardized, yet context-sensitive approach to HMT design that is both scalable and traceable in practice.

Working alongside the HMT Design Lead, who owns the collaborative work requirement profile generation process, you will determine HMT-specific requirements across use cases, identify contextual factors that moderate requirements, and translate baselines into context-sensitive design patterns that support adaptivity. You will work with other HMT capabilities to design scenarios, refine testing procedures, and generate HMI feature requests that improve collaboration.

If you want to define how an entire company designs operator-autonomy relationships rather than one interface at a time, this is your opportunity to make a lasting and scalable impact.

What you'll do::

  • Build and maintain baseline collaborative work requirement profiles for core operational functions, and generate profile variants for edge and off-nominal cases.
  • Define requirements profiles by the operator-autonomy relationship, and document the associated mission risks.
  • Classify the degree of operator-autonomy interdependency for a given function, task, or mission thread, and make hard and soft dependencies explicit.
  • Map requirements profiles to systems engineering requirements and feature requests, and maintain traceability from operational need through test and acceptance.
  • Evolve a repeatable HMT workflow, including HMT standards, design patterns, and review criteria, and co-create a shared HMT body of knowledge.
  • Collaborate with HMI and UX/UI designers to turn requirements profiles into design guidance, review interface designs for mission planning, C2, and battle management tools, and with HMT staff to evaluate scenario designs, testing protocols, and outcomes.
  • Advocate for human perceptual and cognitive considerations in sensemaking and decision-making tools, and ensure compliance with customer human factors standards.
  • Present designs, rationale, and supporting evidence to multiple audiences, and review technical and systems engineering documentation.
  • Travel to company, test, demonstration, and customer locations to conduct project work (approximately 20%).

Required qualifications::

  • Engineer II: typically requires a minimum of 2 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 0 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD without experience. Senior Engineer: typically requires a minimum of 3–5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 2–4 years and a Master's degree; or 2 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
  • A degree in human factors engineering or psychology, cognitive systems engineering, applied cognitive science, industrial and systems engineering, or a related field.
  • Demonstrated experience translating operational HMT experimentation into design guidance, and system requirements.
  • Working knowledge of human machine teaming, human factors, and human performance theory and measurement, including cognitive task analysis and knowledge elicitation.
  • Sound grasp of quasi-/experimental design, experience conducting human participants research, and proficiency with multivariate statistical analyses and tools (e.g., SPSS, R, Python).
  • Experience in multidisciplinary settings, and ability to work in complex, ambiguous problem spaces and produce clear and structured artifacts.
  • Strong teamwork and collaboration skills, and written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred qualifications::

  • Hands-on experience with human machine teaming, MUM-T, human-robot interaction, or applied artificial intelligence, specifically in mission autonomy applications such as UAV Groups 1–5.
  • Experience with human-machine interface design and proficiency with Figma or an equivalent prototyping toolset.
  • Experience in scenario design, and with modeling and simulation tools and methods.
  • Experience with mission planning, C2, and battle management concepts, processes, and doctrine, and with ground control stations or HMIs.
  • Experience authoring design standards, style guides, or review criteria adopted by other teams.
  • Familiarity with traceability methods, or with AI assurance frameworks.
  • Willingness to use agentic AI to speed the path from design concept to fielded product.
  • Prior work with military operators, pilots, or subject matter experts, or an aircrew background.
  • U.S. DoD Secret clearance eligible, with the ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret, SCI, and/or SAP-level access. U.S. citizenship required.

#LI-DM2

#LC

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.

Source: Shield AI careers (Lever)

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