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Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company developing intelligent autonomy systems, uncrewed aircraft, and simulation technologies for military and civilian operations. This role is an Assistant Product Owner supporting the CCA (Collaborative Combat Aircraft) Mission Autonomy program, specifically focused on platform integration and the Shoal 1 epic backlog.
You will work closely with the Product Owner and Chief Engineer to translate customer needs—from the CCA program office, platform providers, and operational end users—into prioritized product requirements. Key responsibilities include:
• Elicit and validate customer needs and priorities from official guidance, scoping documents, and operational subject matter experts
• Translate customer intent into detailed user stories and epic descriptions with clear value propositions, success criteria, acceptance criteria, effort estimates, timelines, dependencies, and risks
• Own day-to-day management of the Shoal 1 epic backlog across feature crews, maintaining traceability to customer requirements and documenting priority/scope changes
• Provide product perspective at sprint planning and review ceremonies, maintaining an integrated product map of epics, interfaces, dependencies, and milestones
• Collaborate with the Shoal Lead to manage cross-shoal dependencies and carry integration decisions to relevant teams
• Support development and integration of the operator interface through backlog management, prioritization, and epic communication
• Maintain hands-on weekly engagement with the operator interface to write HMI-specific epics from direct experience
• Support platform integration crews in vendor interactions
• Act as a translator across disciplines, normalizing terminology and making specialist discussions accessible to the full team
• Support other shoals (Systems Engineering, T&E) through observation of operator-in-the-loop activity and feedback
This role requires deep engagement with complex autonomous systems, flight software, ground control systems, and human-machine interfaces in a defense context. You will work in a distributed, multi-disciplinary environment and travel domestically 15–25%.
REQUIREMENTS:
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, aerospace engineering, cognitive systems engineering, human factors, or related technical field; or equivalent military/operational experience
• 3+ years in product ownership or related field (customer experience, human factors, cognitive systems engineering, human-machine teaming, systems engineering, or technical program management for complex software/aerospace systems)
• Hands-on proficiency with Jira and Confluence, including demonstrated experience authoring and managing epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria in agile environments
• 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/HMIs, or avionics interfaces
• Exceptional written and oral communication; proven ability to translate information across technical audiences without diluting accuracy
• Strong problem-solving skills, 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 required at hire; must be eligible for and capable of obtaining/maintaining Top Secret, SCI, and/or Special Access Program (SAP) level clearance/access
• Ability to travel domestically approximately 15–25%
