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Customer Sustainment Engineer -open level (R5502)

Shield AI· Hivemind Solutions Division – Applications Engineering
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San Diego, CA, Washington, DC$160k - $290kFull Time EmployeePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Senior Customer Sustainment Engineer to support Hivemind systems after they reach customers and operational teams, bridging customer support, systems troubleshooting, and engineering.

Responsibilities

  • Own Tier 1 customer support and incident coordination from initial report through confirmed resolution.
  • Gather the information needed to understand an issue, including mission impact, software version, configuration, deployment state, logs, telemetry, screenshots, network context, and reproduction steps.
  • Troubleshoot Hivemind software, APIs, licensing and provisioning, deployments, configurations, networks, operator workflows, and partner or OEM integrations.
  • Separate product defects from configuration problems, environmental differences, integration issues, training needs, and feature requests.
  • Resolve common technical problems, handle appropriate Tier 2 investigations, and reproduce more complex failures in lab, simulation, or representative test environments.
  • Recognize issues that require Tier 3 or depot-level product repair and give engineering teams concise escalation packages that explain the impact, evidence, likely causes, work already attempted, and expected result.
  • Provide customers with clear updates, practical next steps, and technically sound workarounds while investigations are in progress.
  • Support software releases, upgrades, onboarding, licensing and provisioning workflows, and the transition from deployment into ongoing sustainment.
  • Turn recurring issues into troubleshooting guides, known-issue records, diagnostic tools, training material, and product feedback.
  • Use incident patterns to identify improvements to product reliability, diagnostics, documentation, and release readiness.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical, military, field-engineering, or technical experience.
  • 7+ years of hands-on experience supporting fielded, software-enabled systems in customer, operational, test, deployment, or sustainment environments.
  • Experience with cyber-physical, edge, mission, robotics, autonomy, aviation, defense, industrial-control, or similarly complex deployed systems.
  • Strong troubleshooting skills across software, Linux, configuration, networking, logs, telemetry, software versions, and hardware-adjacent interfaces.
  • A record of owning technical issues from an incomplete initial report through diagnosis and resolution.
  • Ability to read and reason about modern C++ and use existing Python, Bash, or similar scripts during troubleshooting and log analysis.
  • Clear written and verbal communication with customers, operators, and engineering teams, including during time-sensitive situations.
  • Ability to write useful incident records, troubleshooting guidance, engineering escalations, and customer-facing updates.
  • Sound judgment when working within security, export-control, safety, customer-site, contractual, and data-handling requirements.
  • Ability to possess a Secret DoD security clearance when required by customers.

Skills

Required:Tier 1 support ownership and incident coordinationTroubleshooting across software, Linux, configuration, networkingC++ and Python scripting

Benefits

  • 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 skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location.
  • All offers contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
  • Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits.
Last updated Oct 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Shield AI

Autonomy for the world.

Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

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