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 Assistant Product Owner (APO) supports Shield AI's delivery of mission autonomy (MA) to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program — the first time that USAF has decoupled, for procurement purposes, MA from the airframe as a standalone capability. In this context, the ‘product’ is the Autonomy Implementation package, including Mission Autonomy itself, the Human Machine Interface (HMI) software, A-GRA compliance, mission systems, training, cybersecurity, and the full suite of implementation/installation software.
Shield AI’s CCA programs adopt an agile framework and are organized as a leadership tier overseeing multiple shoals (from platform integration to autonomy capabilities), each with multiple feature crews. In the first instance, the APO will support the Platform Integration and Support shoal (Shoal 1), which is responsible for integrating MA with multiple platforms and with the operator interface. The APO will work in collaboration with the Shoal Lead, Systems Engineering Lead, and four Feature Crew Leads and report directly to the Product Owner/Manager, who is part of the program leadership team. The APO owns the day-to-day health of the Shoal 1 product backlog in Jira (and Confluence), and is expected to maintain an integrated picture of how customer priorities, epics, interfaces, dependencies, and milestones relate, and to make ‘product’ legible and accessible to the broader team.
What you'll do:
Work with the Product Owner and Chief Engineer to understand customer product needs (across the CCA program office, platform providers, and operational end users) and to determine priority, separating must-have capability from deferrable scope
Elicit and validate needs and priorities from the customer, including official guidance and scoping documents, and from operational subject matter experts or surrogate end users as available
Translate customer intent into customer needs into user stories and epic descriptions — including value proposition, success criteria, acceptance criteria, expected effort and timeline, dependencies, risks, and preconditions for success — against which feature crews can execute their sprints
Own day-to-day management of the Shoal 1 epic backlog across feature crews, including maintaining traceability with customer requirements, refining the backlog, and monitoring backlog updates to ensure changes in priority or scope are surfaced and their rationale documented appropriately
Provide a product perspective to feature crews at Shoal 1-specific sprint planning and review ceremonies, by maintaining an informal integrated product map of epics, interfaces, dependencies, and program milestones
In collaboration with the Shoal Lead, manage dependencies across shoals, and carry integration decisions and associated implementation implications through to the respective shoal or feature crew leads, or collaboration partner
In collaboration with the Shoal Lead, support development and integration of the operator interface, primarily through the backlog — the HMI feature crew owns delivery, the Shoal Lead owns requirements and acceptance, and the APO owns description, communication, and prioritization of epics
Keep protected weekly hands-on time in the operator interface, so that HMI-specific epics and instructions can be written from first-hand use rather than second-hand reports
Support the platform integration crew in their interaction with vendors
Act as translator across disciplines — normalize preferred terminology and make specialist discussion accessible to the whole team, ensuring general consistency
Support other shoals (e.g., Systems Engineering, T&E) through observation of operator-in-the-loop (OITL) activity and by providing feedback in review sessions
Required qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, aerospace engineering, cognitive systems engineering, human factors, or a related technical field; or equivalent military or operational experience
3+ years in product ownership or a related field (e.g., customer experience, human factors, cognitive systems engineering, human-machine teaming, systems engineering, or technical program management for complex software or aerospace systems)
Hands-on proficiency with Jira and Confluence as systems of record, including demonstrated experience authoring and managing epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria in an agile environment
Demonstrated ability to hold an integrated view of a complex product across distributed documentation and multiple engineering disciplines
Willingness to become a hands-on user of the operator interface, independently installing, configuring, and running mission scenarios
Working technical fluency in mission autonomy, autonomous systems, flight software, ground control systems or HMIs, or avionics interfaces
Exceptional written and oral communication, and proven ability to translate information across technical audiences without diluting technical accuracy
Strong problem solving skills, including sound decision making and judgment under ambiguity with minimal supervision
Ability to work effectively, both independently and as part of a team
Must be a U.S. person as defined under ITAR
Active U.S. DoD Secret security clearance is required at time of hire. Must be eligible for, and capable of obtaining and maintaining, Top Secret, SCI, and/or Special Access Program (SAP) level clearance/access
Ability to travel domestically approximately 15–25%
Preferred qualifications:
Experience supporting a U.S. Air Force, Navy, or joint aviation program of record involving uncrewed or autonomous collaborative platforms
Familiarity with the A-GRA, A-GRI, UCI messaging, or other modular open systems architectures
Experience with airworthiness, functional safety, or assurance-driven software processes and certification artifacts
Exposure to flight autonomy, vehicle management systems, or aircraft-level integration and flight test campaigns
Experience with C2 or HMI products for uncrewed systems (e.g., STANAG 4586, MAVLink, CoT, TAK)
Formal grounding in product, human factors, or cognitive systems engineering methods
Experience supporting OITL evaluations, test and evaluation campaigns, or functional check flight activity as a product or human factors representative
Proficiency with systems and process modeling tools (e.g., Cameo), and with reading interface control documents (ICDs)
Experience establishing decision logs, change control, or product governance in a program that previously lacked them
Experience coordinating directly with platform manufacturers, primes, or government program offices
Military aviation, flight test, or uncrewed aircraft systems operational experience
Advanced degree in engineering, business (e.g., MBA), or related field (e.g., computer science, aerospace, cognitive systems engineering, human factors)
Current or prior Special Access Program (SAP) or Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access
