2 months ago
Base Salary
$234k - $351k/yr
Responsibilities
- Design tactical autonomy algorithms for unmanned aircraft and other platforms across air, land, and sea domains.
- Develop high-performance C++ software for planning, decision-making, and behavior execution.
- Implement and test behavior architectures for multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability.
- Combine rule-based autonomy with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning.
- Collaborate with perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight-test teams.
- Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demonstrations.
- Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures and improve behavior models.
- Research and prototype algorithms, identify capability gaps, and contribute to the autonomy roadmap.
- Own software systems across requirements, design, implementation, deployment, sustainment, and evolution.
- Lead multidisciplinary teams, set technical direction, support customer programs, and mentor junior engineers.
- Travel approximately 10–15% of the year to offices, customer sites, and flight-integration events.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, mechanical engineering, or a related field.
- Production-level C++ software development proficiency.
- At least 7 years of experience in software subsystem scheduling and integration, behavior planning, task and resource allocation, motion planning, optimization, or flight controls.
- Experience with collaborative software development tools for version control, issue tracking, code reviews, and release management.
- Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, set technical direction, and manage projects from concept through deployment.
- Ability to act as technical owner for an entire software system and manage stakeholder engagement, requirements, roadmaps, coordination, design, implementation, sustainment, and evolution.
- Ability to mentor junior team members and build team cohesion.
- Eligibility to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.
- Preferred experience spanning technology readiness levels and transitioning research-grade concepts to operational systems.
- Preferred mission systems integration experience, including integration events or flight demonstrations.
- Preferred experience with collaborative mission planning, behavior planning, synchronized teaming, tactics, motion planning, target assignment, sensor control, collision avoidance, geofencing, and safety monitoring.
- Preferred experience across multiple operational effects and domains such as air, space, maritime, or ground.
- Preferred experience with robotics software, simulation environments, navigation and communications systems, product delivery lifecycles, systems engineering, and high-assurance development processes.
Benefits
- Full-time regular employees receive pay within the listed range plus bonus, benefits, and equity.
- Temporary employees receive pay within the listed range plus a temporary benefits package applicable after 60 days.
- The position is full-time and typically requires approximately 10–15% travel.
- Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
Tech Stack
Categories
Robotics
About Shield AI
Shield AI builds autonomous systems for military and national security customers, combining its Hivemind autonomy software with V-BAT and X-BAT unmanned aircraft and Aechelon simulation technologies. The privately held company sells hardware, software, and related services to U.S. and allied defense agencies. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Diego, it operates across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, and its technology is used in operational deployments.