Staff Engineer, Cybersecurity Platform (R5531) at Shield AI
Dallas, TX
$150,000–$230,000
Aug 4, 2026
Dallas, TX
Sep 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role sits at the intersection of cybersecurity and network/infrastructure engineering for a defense-tech company building autonomous aircraft and related systems. The engineer will design and implement secure network architectures, drive ATO documentation, enforce STIGs, and support threat detection and incident response — with a particular focus on the X-BAT ground control station cybersecurity stack. It suits a hands-on practitioner with deep experience in both enterprise networking and DoD/NIST compliance frameworks.
Senior level · 5+ years · San Diego, CA · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $150,000–$230,000
Advertised as Staff, but the requirements read as Senior.
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How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $135,025 (middle half $104,570–$171,163). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 6, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role blends cybersecurity analysis/compliance (ATO documentation, STIGs, NIST frameworks, threat detection) with hands-on network and infrastructure engineering — making it a genuine hybrid between 15-1212 Information Security Analysts and 15-1244 Network and Computer Systems Administrators. The cybersecurity compliance and architecture framing edges it toward 15-1212 as the primary classification.
The job title says 'Staff' but the requirements (5+ years, no explicit cross-team technical authority or org-wide scope) are consistent with a Senior-level role. 'Staff' here appears to be a title convention rather than a true Staff-band scope.
Location is not explicitly stated in the posting; Shield AI's primary engineering hub is San Diego, CA, but the role could be at any of their U.S. facilities. The CBSA reflects the most likely location.
The clearance requirement is stated as 'ability to obtain and maintain a DoD government clearance at the Secret level' — candidates need not hold an active clearance on day one, but it is a hard gate.
NIST SP 800-63B and encryption standards are mentioned in the same required-qualifications bullet as NIST SP 800-53 and ISO 27001; they are part of the same cybersecurity frameworks requirement rather than separate discrete tools, so they are captured under the broader framework skills.
Kubernetes and Terraform appear under Preferred qualifications with specific sub-features called out (admission control, OPA/Gatekeeper, reusable secure modules, policy-as-code).
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): NIST SP 800-53.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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