Senior Engineer, Platform Infrastructure (R5516)
- Salary
- USD 120,000 - 180,000 / per-year-salary
- Level
- Senior
- Work type
- On-site · Dallas
Not stated in the posting: visa.
Open. First seen 22 October 2026.
About the role
Shield AI's standard text
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.
Why This Role Exists:
We build and operate the platform that our engineers and our customers rely on.
The platform isn't a product that's ever "finished." It's something we improve continuously. Every deployment, outage, bug, and annoying manual task is an opportunity to make the system better.
An L3 Platform Engineer is a fully contributing member of that effort.
This isn't a ticket factory. We expect engineers to think critically, collaborate closely, and continuously improve both the platform and the way we build it.
How We Work:
Our engineering culture is built on Extreme Programming and Continuous Delivery.
That means:
- Pair programming is our default way of developing software.
- We work in small batches.
- We integrate continuously.
- We automate repetitive work.
- We test first whenever practical.
- We optimize for learning and feedback instead of individual velocity.
- The team owns the outcome.
If you're looking for a role where you're handed tickets, disappear for a week, and come back with a pull request, this isn't it.
What You'll Do:
- Build and improve the platform that deploys and operates customer environments.
- Develop infrastructure as code using Ansible, Terraform, Helm, Zarf, Big Bang, Packer, and related tooling.
- Improve Kubernetes platforms and the systems around them.
- Build deployment automation that reduces risk and removes manual work.
- Pair with other engineers to design, implement, and troubleshoot platform capabilities.
- Write automated tests for infrastructure and deployment workflows.
- Improve observability, reliability, security, and recoverability.
- Write documentation that explains why something exists—not just how to type commands.
- Leave every part of the system better than you found it.
What We Expect:
You Build for Change
Software is never finished.
Your goal isn't simply to make today's feature work.
Your goal is to leave the code, infrastructure, and deployment process easier to change tomorrow.
You Prefer Automation
If humans perform the same task repeatedly, the system probably needs improvement.
Manual processes are temporary.
Automation is the destination.
You Think in Small Batches
Large changes hide mistakes.
Small changes expose them.
We value engineers who can decompose large problems into safe, incremental improvements.
You Work as Part of the Team
Platform engineering is a collaborative discipline.
You bring potential solutions to the team, clearly explain your reasoning and tradeoffs, and help the team build a shared understanding of the code or design not merely produce it. You are responsible for understanding, validating, and clearly communicating the work you contribute.
You Improve the System
When something goes wrong, we don't stop at fixing it.
We ask:
- Why did this happen?
- Why wasn't it detected sooner?
- How do we make this impossible or at least unlikely next time?
Incidents should improve the platform.
Technical Expectations:
You should be comfortable working across most of these areas:
- Kubernetes
- Linux
- Networking fundamentals
- Git and trunk-based development
- GitLab CI
- Infrastructure as Code
- Ansible
- Terraform
- Helm
- Zarf
- Containers
- PKI and certificate management
- Secrets management
- Observability
- Infrastructure testing
- Troubleshooting distributed systems
No one is expected to know everything.
We do expect you to learn quickly and become productive in unfamiliar systems.
How Success Is Measured:
Successful L3 engineers consistently help the team:
- Deploy more frequently.
- Deploy more safely.
- Recover from failures faster.
- Remove manual work.
- Reduce operational complexity.
- Improve documentation.
- Increase confidence through testing.
- Deliver changes in small, reversible increments.
- Make the platform easier to operate and easier to evolve.
What We Value:
- Simplicity over cleverness.
- Evidence over opinion.
- Learning over ego.
- Automation over repetition.
- Continuous improvement over perfection.
- Team outcomes over individual heroics.
What Doesn't Fit Here:
- Building knowledge silos.
- Defending "the way we've always done it."
- Optimizing for personal productivity instead of team throughput.
- Big-bang rewrites when incremental change will work.
- Manual work that should be automated.
- Complexity without a clear operational benefit.
#LI-LD1
#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.
Shield AI's standard text
###
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.
What this role asks for
85% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Shield AI's standard text, folded away below.
Compared with Shield AI's other open jobs.
The team: Integration & Test HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 28 open in Integration & Test. 16 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in January: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Python (24 of 28), Linux (21 of 28), CI/CD (18 of 28), C++ (17 of 28), Test Automation (17 of 28), Git (15 of 28), Docker (12 of 28)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Engineer I, Software - Factory Team (R6235) posted Oct 10
- Engineer II, Flight Test (R6222) posted Oct 10
- Engineer II, Software Test and Automation (R6221) posted Oct 10
- Engineer I, Flight Test (R6219) posted Oct 10
- Engineer II, Software - Factory (R6217) posted Oct 10
- Engineer I, Software Test and Automation (R6216) posted Oct 10
- Engineer I, Software Integration (R6214) posted Oct 9
- Staff Engineer, HMS DevOps/DevEx (R6196) posted Oct 8
- Engineer I, Simulation Framework (R6203) posted Oct 7
- Engineer II, Integration (R6202) posted Oct 7
- Engineer II, Simulation Framework (R6204) posted Oct 7
- Senior Engineer, HMS Simulation Framework (R6058) posted Sep 24
- Senior Engineer, System Integration Test (R6086) posted Sep 24
- Staff Engineer, Flight Test (R6064) posted Sep 24
- Staff Engineer, System Test Network (R6030) posted Sep 24
- Staff Engineer, Integration (R6009) posted Sep 23
- Senior Staff Engineer, Test Director (R5446) posted Sep 14
- Senior Staff Engineer, Systems Integration (R5415) posted Sep 4
- Senior Engineer, Software Integration (R5462) posted Aug 3
- Staff Engineer, GenAI Tooling & DevEx (R5469) posted Jul 31
- Manager, Software Test & Automation (R5461) posted Jul 22
- Staff Engineer, AI Factory (R5276) posted Jul 1
- Senior Engineer, Autonomy Software Integration & Test (R5225) posted Jun 12
- Director, Test Engineering - ACP Programs posted May 23
- Engineer II, Systems Test (R5038) posted May 23
- Senior Engineer, Systems Test (R5038) posted May 23
- Senior Engineer, Software Test and Automation (R4472) posted Jan 31
From the team and dates on Shield AI's own job board.
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