Shield AI reviews

3.5

64% would recommend to a friend

(193 total reviews)
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Gary Steele

75% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Shield AI has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 193 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Shield AI employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Aerospace & Defense industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

193 reviews
3.0
Jul 23, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Intelligent engineers, free snacks, nice office, teammates are kind to each other

Cons

Seems like 90% men employed with no acknowledgement of this by executives or any plan to diversify, which is odd for a tech company or defense company in 2022. Pay is okay, no transparency into everyones pay so can't comment directly; doesn't seem overly competitive, but certainly livable. No culture besides "work hard", very visible decline within employee programs, perks, development, and resources. Starting to feel more like a factory. Most departments are understaffed and overworked, which leads to burnout. People aren't robots being built, executive team seem to think that is the case and would rather have overworked team instead of hiring appropriately. Putting people into roles or overseeing roles they have no experience or expertise seems to be rampant because they were recommended or know someone, which should not be happening at a company this late in growth stages. Not the worst company, not the best either. Not the place for people who need routine or consistency. Plenty of work to be done to be a legitimate company; more investment into support staff, current employees and general structure.

5.0
Sep 22, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Everyone here works hard, and you see it based on their actions and results. That includes executive leadership, business team, and engineering. This is very motivating to see. * Amazing work culture and ethics. * Company mission in protecting lives through technology and AI is inspiring. * Young startup company, but very organized and follows best practices. We have organized processes such as Sprints, CI/CD, code review process, etc. * Get to work with some really cool and state of the art technology. You are free to be innovative and creative. * Very friendly environment. Work with a bunch of smart people with no egos. People are also accountable for their actions and everyone always helps each other. * Company paid lunches.

Cons

* Commuting to Downtown San Diego, depending on where you live * Company is growing, which means office space is getting limited. * As is true for any startup, work hours can be long. Want to emphasize though that this isn't a requirement. I've observed that people work long and hard here because "they want to", not because "they have to". You are not forced to work long hours. People are still able to enjoy their lives and hobbies. * Not your typical engineering company where most engineers come in at 10am. Most, if not everyone, are already in the office by 8am.

1.0
Mar 6, 2026

Overall Toxic Culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

No issues with funding or role stability.

Cons

Absolutely no work-life balance. Everyone just seems burnt out - you won't feel an ounce of excitement interacting with engineers. The engineering practices in place are not solid. The new CEO has brought some good changes - however the work environment is still unbearable. The 50 hour mandated work week is just a minimum. You'll constantly work above that every week. The engineering leaders aren't solving the real engineering issues. The answer to everything just seems to be more pressure and work more. No clear coordinated company direction. Also, there are a lot of folks from academia running the company. These are folks who have never ran a company of this size in the past and it shows. And the culture is extremely toxic and political. In private conversations, everyone will tell you how unhappy they are a the company and don't know how to carry one. However, in every meeting and public conversations, everyone puts on a "fake happy" face. It's not a safe environment to talk about issues openly.

Viewing 37 - 39 of 193 Reviews

Glassdoor has 218 Shield AI reviews submitted anonymously by Shield AI employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Shield AI is right for you.