Operational Analyst

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:

We are seeking a Senior Lead Operational Analyst to contribute to the modeling, simulation, and analysis of Shield AI’s aircraft systems. In this role, you will perform analysis at the component, system, mission and campaign levels to evaluate the effectiveness, survivability, and operational impact of our aircraft across multiple domains, missions and applications. You will collaborate closely with engineering, product, and defense stakeholders to assess system performance, inform design trade-offs, and improve mission outcomes. 
This position requires a strong working knowledge of military operations, modeling & simulation (M&S), data science, and operational analysis techniques. Your analyses will directly support product decisions and customer engagements by helping demonstrate how Shield AI’s AI-powered platforms perform in realistic and contested operational environments. 

What you'll do:

• Plan, own and execute operational analyses to assess the effectiveness of autonomous systems in representative military scenarios.
• Develop and run modeling, simulation, and wargaming analyses to evaluate system performance, mission impact, and survivability in contested environments.
• Collaborate with engineering teams and product managers to translate operational findings into actionable system insights.
• Perform trade studies and sensitivity analyses to assess system performance across varying operational conditions, assumptions, and threat environments.
• Build, modify, and analyze mission-level models using tools such as AFSIM, STK, MATLAB, Python, or similar M&S frameworks.
• Analyze force-on-force engagements, sensor performance, and autonomy-enabled behaviors to support mission effectiveness assessments.
• Engage with DoD stakeholders, operators, and analysts to understand mission needs and operational constraints.