Principal Field Solutions Engineer

About Us

Shift5’s mission is to defend planes, trains, and tanks from cyberattack. We’re a product company that deploys hardware and software onto civilian and military platforms—from aircraft, rail, and ground vehicles to maritime, space, and weapons systems. As a rapidly growing, venture-backed startup, we offer a deeply challenging and exciting work environment. As a Shift5 team member, you’ll play a crucial role in defending critical infrastructure, civilians, and military personnel from cyberattacks.

The Role

As a Principal Field Solutions Engineer, you will be a vital member of our customer-facing team, responsible for working directly with nearly every other organization in the company to include Sales, Engineering, Product and Labs, to scope and conduct proof of concept, deploy hardware and software in the field, bring by findings and work with engineering to achieve overall improvements to our product to drive technical wins and sales expansion. You will be the front line, developing the relationship and earning the trust of the customer and acting as a super-connector between customer points of engagement and the full host of resources Shift5 brings to the fight. You will be responsible for scoping and execution of PoCs, developing and maintaining relationships with customer champions (with the help of your counterparts in the Sales organization). You will be the continuity in the eyes of the customer, no matter the resources that need to be called upon through the lifecycle of customer success. You will analyze existing systems to identify flaws or inefficiencies, use problem-solving and technical skills to document findings that you will provide to engineering while working with them to see improvements through to fruition. We embrace user-centric design because we firmly believe that it ultimately leads to the best products. Your close work as the customer advocate who earns and maintains the trust of your internal peers makes you a key contributor in generating high-impact products that literally save lives. You will be as comfortable speaking with a customer C-level executive as you are sitting down with core developers and talking through problems and proposing solutions. If you’re the kind of person who loves learning about new topics, exploring outside of your comfort zone, painting from white canvas, and working with like-minded individuals, Shift5 might be the right fit for you. We’re a cybersecurity company, but it’s not a dealbreaker if you don’t have a security background. If you demonstrate potential and a desire to learn about cybersecurity, we’d like to hear from you.

The Team

Shift5 looks for creative, nerdy, passionate, hard-working, lateral thinkers. We’re patriots who care about the cyber-physical security of our fellow citizens and the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who keep us all safe. We tackle really hard problems head-on in an inclusive, calm, and highly collaborative environment. Our engineers come from diverse backgrounds.

Our technology stack is deep:

● Our hardware engineers design and manufacture printed circuit boards in KiCad, design installation and integration packages, and program microcontrollers in C.● Our system engineers write blazing-fast C++ system software and integrate third-party solutions into our tech stack.● Our full-stack engineers craft enterprise event stream-based code, knit together infrastructure as code, and architect web APIs.● Our front-end engineers design beautiful web applications to expose intuitive, high-impact interfaces to our users.● Our data engineers conjure magical Jupyter notebook workflows, design experiments, and conceive defensive analytics to detect cyberattacks.● Our solutions engineers deploy these creations in anger, capture the realities of operational use and work collectively to drive improvements and net new capabilities, diving into work alongside their peers where able.

The Tech Stack

Shift5 Intake is a serial data bus collection platform. It’s written primarily in cross-platform, idiomatic, modern C++. (Our Chief Executive Officer is a big C++ fan.) You’ll have the opportunity to learn about serial data protocols, interact with (and write) drivers to extract data from collection hardware, and integrate new features. You’ll learn about the MQTT protocol, Boost Libraries, logging techniques, error reporting with Sentry, Docker, binary obfuscation, asynchronous networking, Zstandard compression, concurrent programming, and object serialization. Shift5 Engine is an ingestion framework for handling the firehose of serial data coming off our Shift5 Intake deployments. It’s written primarily in elegant Python. You’ll learn about event streaming frameworks, serverless architecture designs, and effective web API design. Shift5 Gauge Cluster is the serial-data-bus presentation layer. Our primary deployment is Kibana/Elasticsearch. You’ll learn about data engineering, dashboarding, and front-end design with Javascript. Since we handle a wide range of serial-data protocols, you’ll have the opportunity to gain subject-matter expertise in various operational technologies. We use Kubernetes, Docker, Node, Elastic, Django, Jinja, and Google Protocol buffers within our infrastructure. We’re heavy Amazon Web Services users and early adopters of infrastructure as code, continuous integration, and continuous deployment. Ever want to learn about what makes the electronics in a tank, satellite, or commercial aircraft tick? We’ve got a one-of-a-kind job for you!

Impact Plan Within 1 month, you’ll:

● Complete Shift5’s Field Engineering Onboarding process, so you’ll be familiar with the Shift5 way of building amazing products, how we secure operational technology from cyberattacks, and the company’s strategic direction● Meet and interact with your peers across the engineering, sales, and product organization and start to build a trusted relationship● Learn the details of all in-flight projects and the current project pipeline, and begin to determine where you can jump in to start providing value● Engage with a Customer Account Executive to learn how Shift5 supports our customers● Attend a Shift5 Demo Day!

Within 3 months, you’ll:

● Strengthen your knowledge of Shift5’s technology stack—from printed circuit boards to Bootstrap elements● Begin to fully understand the nuance of installing Shift5 product stack in the field in customer platforms and demonstrate this process to others● Understand the technology stack sufficiently to allow you to lend aid elsewhere in the engineering organization where your skills align with time-sensitive efforts● Produce standardized PRD/FR documentation to make ingestion by product engineering as efficient as possible● Be able to explain and demonstrate Shift5’s technology stack to others● Participate in a successful PoC!

Within 6 months, you’ll:

● Own oversight on large customer accounts and begin the build-out of vertical focused field engineering teams● Proactively identify and capture new opportunities for upsell/expansion and cross-vertical capabilities improvements● Be a significant contributor in working side by side with your Sales counterparts to win net-new business● Participate in interviewing, taking ownership of Shift5’s culture as it grows!

Within 12 months, you’ll:

● Be a respected, bedrock subject matter expert to whom new employees gravitate for mentoring and enablement● Be a respected and often called upon trusted advisor to your customer based● Help prioritize and balance short-term and long-term investments, focusing on high impact, high-value work● Be a voice in the industry, supporting marketing efforts such as speaking and writing engagements, trade show presentations and security summit participation● Have a mastery of Shift5’s technology stack● Offer and opinion that is sought after by engineering and product leadership regarding priorities

The Shift5 Story

Shift5, Inc. was founded in 2019 by Michael Weigand, James Correnti, and Josh Lospinoso. All three founders previously served in the US Army and the intelligence community’s elite cyber units, where they led technology teams, operations, and policies to secure our nation’s most critical systems. Realizing the impact and scale of their expertise, Mike, James, and Josh decided to build an exceptional team to focus on securing operational technology by building best-in-class, dual-use products serving military and commercial entities. Shift5, Inc. is a veteran-owned business with offices and labs in Arlington, Virginia employing US citizens and cleared personnel.

Compensation

● Competitive salary and stock options in a fast-growing startup● Premium coverage for medical, dental, and vision through UnitedHealthcare including Health Savings Accounts● 401k plan ● Unlimited paid time off policy with mandatory minimums● Unlimited flexible work from home policy● Professional materials allowance for professional papers, books, and hardware● Professional conference attendance and financial allowances● Shift5 covers meals, snacks, and drinks in the office● Tax-deferred public transit benefits with Metro SmartBenefits

Shift5, Inc is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by applicable law.