Director, Ops Analysis (R5036)

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.

Responsibilities

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; Establish standards for analytical rigor, model credibility, assumption tracking, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty characterization, and communication of results; Create clear, executive-ready briefings explaining what was analyzed, assumptions, results, and recommended decisions; Support customer engagements by developing technically grounded analysis that demonstrates operational value; Work with engineering teams to identify 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 scale across programs and domains; Represent the Operations Analysis function in internal technical reviews, roadmap discussions, capture strategy sessions, and customer-facing meetings

Requirements

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; Ability to work in a fast-paced environment where priorities evolve quickly; U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Nice to have

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; Prior military, government laboratory, FFRDC/UARC, defense contractor, or aerospace experience; Active U.S. security clearance

Benefits

Bonus; Equity; Benefits (full-time regular employees); Temporary benefits package applicable after 60 days of employment (temporary employees); Benefits not available to military fellows and part-time employees