Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Emerging Domains (R5398)
Shield AI3 months ago
Base Salary
$234k - $351k/yr
Responsibilities
- Define technical strategy and architecture for autonomy on new platforms and mission areas.
- Lead development, integration, validation, deployment, and operational readiness of autonomy capabilities across emerging domains.
- Drive architecture reviews, engineering standards, interface control documents, integration strategies, and technical best practices.
- Resolve complex autonomy integration issues spanning software, hardware, embedded systems, and platform interfaces.
- Guide release strategy, mission validation, live testing, customer demonstrations, operational exercises, and mission debriefs.
- Define C2 interoperability strategy and guide adoption of open-systems defense standards.
- Improve engineering processes, developer experience, testing infrastructure, and integration workflows.
- Mentor senior engineers, help define senior engineering hiring standards, and develop future technical leaders.
- Partner with platform teams, autonomy and perception teams, engineering leadership, customers, and external partners.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
- Typically 10+ years of relevant experience.
- Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
- Demonstrated ability to define technical strategy across multiple programs or engineering organizations.
- Proven experience solving complex systems integration challenges in ambiguous environments.
- Experience mentoring senior engineers and influencing engineering direction without formal authority.
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
- Preferred: experience leading first-of-kind autonomy or advanced R&D efforts.
- Preferred: experience across multiple autonomy domains, including air, maritime, space, ground, or robotics.
- Preferred: experience transitioning prototypes into operational systems and working with government R&D programs or defense customers.
- Preferred: experience shaping engineering practices across an organization.
- Preferred: experience with UCI, OMS, STANAG 4586, or other defense interoperability standards.
Benefits
- Full-time regular employee offer package includes bonus, benefits, and equity.
- Travel is typically 10–20% of the year to offices, customer sites, operator training events, flight tests, and integration exercises.
- Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
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.