Director, Operations Analysis

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:

Shield AI is building intelligent autonomy systems for the defense of service members and civilians. The Hivemind Solutions organization applies Shield AI’s autonomy stack to mission-critical systems across air, maritime, strike, weapons, space, and collaborative autonomy domains.

We are seeking a Director, Operations Analysis to lead a team responsible for turning operational problems into quantitative insights that shape product strategy, engineering priorities, customer engagement, and mission outcomes. This leader will manage and grow a high-performing Operations Analysis team that uses modeling, simulation, wargaming, campaign analysis, and mission-level trade studies to help determine what Hivemind should build, why it matters, and how it performs in realistic operational contexts.

This is a leadership role for someone who can operate at the intersection of autonomy, military operations, mission engineering, modeling and simulation, product strategy, and customer-facing analysis. The right candidate will be technically credible, analytically rigorous, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to translate complex operational questions into clear recommendations for executives, engineers, business development leaders, and government customers.

What you'll do:

• Lead and manage the Hivemind Solutions Operations Analysis team, including hiring, mentoring, prioritization, performance management, and technical direction.

• Build an operations analysis capability that directly 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 Hivemind 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 that connect mission objectives, operational assumptions, threat environments, system performance, autonomy behaviors, and measurable mission outcomes.

• Guide the use of tools such as AFSIM, NGTS, STK, MATLAB, Python, custom simulations, and other modeling 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 clear, executive-ready briefings that explain what was analyzed, what assumptions were made, what the results mean, and what decisions should follow.

• Support customer engagements by developing compelling, technically grounded analysis that demonstrates the operational value of Hivemind-enabled systems.

• Work with engineering teams to identify the 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 can scale across programs and domains.

• Represent the Operations Analysis function in internal technical reviews, roadmap discussions, capture strategy sessions, and customer-facing meetings.

Required qualifications:

• 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 with clarity, confidence, and 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.

Preferred qualifications:

• 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.

What success looks like:

• In this role, success means the Operations Analysis team becomes a trusted decision engine for Hivemind Solutions. The team’s work should not sit on a shelf. It should shape what we build, how we prioritize, how we explain operational value to customers, and how we make hard trade decisions across product lines.

  A successful manager will build a team that is technically rigorous, operationally grounded, fast-moving, and deeply connected to the business. They will ensure that analysis is not treated as an after-the-fact briefing function, but as a core part of product development, strategy, and customer engagement.

Why this role matters:

• Autonomy changes what is operationally possible, but only if we understand where it creates real mission advantage. The Operations Analysis team helps answer that question. This team connects Hivemind’s technical capabilities to measurable operational outcomes, helping Shield AI make better product decisions and helping customers understand the mission impact of intelligent autonomous systems.

  If you want to lead a team that sits at the center of autonomy, strategy, engineering, and operational decision-making, this role is for you.

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.