Shield AI’s Nov 7 FDE board: Autonomy and Ops seats with ~50% travel, London ladder, Senior Autonomy $152K–$228K
A 7 November FDE Dispatch read of Shield AI’s Lever/Ashby boards found eight Forward Deployed engineer rows (six distinct roles)—Autonomy and Operations & Sustainment plus a London FDE II/Senior/Staff ladder—with Autonomy Senior posted at $152,000–$228,000 and ~50% travel on US Autonomy/Ops seats versus ~30% on London.
FDE Dispatch’s 7 November live check of Shield AI’s public boards, built on its 3 November snapshot of 704 FDE-family postings across 114 employers, counted eight Shield AI engineer-family rows (tied for 16th with Thomson Reuters). Those rows cover six distinct roles: open-level Autonomy and Operations & Sustainment (each dual-listed on Lever and Ashby in the snapshot), plus a London ladder of Forward Deployed Engineer II, Senior, and Staff.
On the live check, four seats were still open (FDE II, Autonomy on Lever, Ops on Lever, Senior London); the Ashby Autonomy/Ops copies and one Staff seat had closed, and another Staff page was treated as closing. Autonomy Lever posts leveled US base bands including Senior Engineer $152,000–$228,000, Staff $181,000–$272,000, and Senior Staff $212,000–$318,000; Ops Senior is $156,000–$234,000. London seats post no pay range.
Years and travel split by track: London FDE II asks for a Bachelor’s with 2+ years (or Master’s with 1+), Senior London and open-level Autonomy/Ops cluster at 5+, and Staff asks for 7+. London texts state about 30% travel; Autonomy and Ops state about 50%, with Ops also preferring clearance eligibility for some programs. Stack language centers on modern C++ (and Python/Bash for field diagnostics on Ops), plus Hivemind / Shield AI SDK customer work.
For FDEs, this is a defense/autonomy deployment board: expect field-heavy travel, C++-first integration work, and US pay bands that sit near the broader US engineer-title median midpoint FDE Dispatch cites at $216,104—without treating posted ranges as offers.
Source: fdedispatch.com