Demo

Senior Staff Technical Program Manager (R3880)

Shield AI and Careers
Washington, DC Full Time
POSTED ON 1/8/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 3/1/2026
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With nine offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the 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.

We are looking for an exceptional Technical Program Manager to manage our next-generation autonomous aircraft development programs. You will be responsible for planning and managing the schedule, cost, development, and delivery of strategic products to customers. This role requires a versatile individual who can understand the aviation autonomy market and empathize with users, plan and manage a complex software development program, and make difficult and informed decisions regarding integrated hardware, software, and systems engineering efforts.

The ideal candidate will maintain ownership over the product lifecycle, proactively engage and align stakeholders, demonstrate exceptional levels of communication, and ensure on-time and on-target delivery of product to customers.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

    • Coordinate engineering execution and operations hand-offs to crush schedule, cost, performance objectives.
    • Establish clear objectives: Work closely with product managers, and technical leads to establish clear objectives traceable to mission impact, strategic impact, financial outcomes, and program objectives.
    • Project Management: Define project plans including milestones, timelines, and interdependencies. Estimate, allocate, and track resources. Establish efficient and effective battle rhythm for communication, coordination, decision making, quality control, and work-product delivery
    • Drive Timely, High Quality, Critical Decisions: While TPMs aren't expected to design systems, they shall possess a strong technical understanding to drive the process of swift, rigorous, good technical decision making.
    • Communicate with excellence: Ensure stakeholders with dependencies are aware of status, milestones, and any challenges. Ensure suppliers understand stakes, intent, and expectations.
    • Empower the team: Obsess over whether your teams are empowered with a) the time, information, and tools to be effective b) clear and appropriate accountability, authority, and resourcing c) effective, efficient, swift processes and policies. Destroy obstacles to progress – anything that diminishes the capabilities of the team.
    • Deliver outcomes: Oversee and material contribute to the curation and creation of technical documentation to ensure engineering outputs are properly delivered to “customer” organizations. RTM packages, Work Instructions, Engineering Change Orders, Service Bulletins, Flight Crew Information Files, Flight Manuals and Service Manuals.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

    • Bachelor’s or Master's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
    • 10 years of experience in technical program management or managing product development lifecycles
    • Proven track record of leading and facilitating cross-functional teams to successfully bringing products to market.
    • Self-starter with a proven track record of forging clarity and structure in the face of ambiguous or dynamic constraints.
    • World-class analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to quickly synthesize disparate viewpoints to deliver well-informed, data-backed decisions.
    • Relentless learner who can develop specialized knowledge in niche domains.
    • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

    • Experiencing owning and driving technical projects that balance engineering development realities against the speed of business growth.
    • Experience translating technical information and customer needs into comprehensible product narratives.
    • Experience conducting product, technology, and market discovery with subject matter experts.
    • Eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret clearance.
    • Defense, national security, or aerospace domain familiarity through employment or education.
$174,400 - $261,600 a year
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 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.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

Salary : $174,400 - $261,600

If your compensation planning software is too rigid to deploy winning incentive strategies, it’s time to find an adaptable solution. Compensation Planning
Enhance your organization's compensation strategy with salary data sets that HR and team managers can use to pay your staff right. Surveys & Data Sets

What is the career path for a Senior Staff Technical Program Manager (R3880)?

Sign up to receive alerts about other jobs on the Senior Staff Technical Program Manager (R3880) career path by checking the boxes next to the positions that interest you.
Income Estimation: 
$138,649 - $191,575
Income Estimation: 
$182,502 - $249,036
Income Estimation: 
$207,946 - $249,343
Income Estimation: 
$175,165 - $219,883
Income Estimation: 
$182,642 - $260,237
Income Estimation: 
$334,600 - $465,667
Income Estimation: 
$458,908 - $709,629
View Core, Job Family, and Industry Job Skills and Competency Data for more than 15,000 Job Titles Skills Library

Job openings at Shield AI and Careers

  • Shield AI and Careers Dallas, TX
  • Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its... more
  • 6 Days Ago

  • Shield AI and Careers San Diego, CA
  • Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its... more
  • 6 Days Ago

  • Shield AI and Careers San Diego, CA
  • Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its... more
  • 6 Days Ago

  • Shield AI and Careers San Diego, CA
  • JOB DESCRIPTION: Shield AI is building autonomous aircraft that push the limits of aviation. The Software Integration & Operations (SIO) team builds and su... more
  • 6 Days Ago


Not the job you're looking for? Here are some other Senior Staff Technical Program Manager (R3880) jobs in the Washington, DC area that may be a better fit.

  • Scale AI Washington, DC
  • Our Security team operates at the intersection of advanced machine learning systems, federal compliance, and high-growth technology execution. As a Staff T... more
  • 21 Days Ago

  • Modern Technology Solutions Inc Washington, DC
  • MTSI is seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager (TPM) with a TS/SCI clearance to provide support to a Government Program Management Office/Program Manag... more
  • 17 Days Ago

AI Assistant is available now!

Feel free to start your new journey!