3 months ago
Base Salary
$211k - $316k/yr
Responsibilities
- Serve as the senior technical authority for space-domain autonomy and own mission architecture, software/system design, technical execution, quality, risk, verification, and customer technical confidence.
- Define autonomy architectures and behaviors for multi-constellation and multi-orbit tasking, scheduling, replanning, resource allocation, coordination, and conflict resolution.
- Architect hybrid onboard and offboard processing, including inference, data reduction, fusion, storage, prioritization, and dissemination under mission constraints.
- Lead exploitation capabilities such as automated triage, sensor fusion, event and anomaly detection, object/activity characterization, provenance, confidence estimation, and analyst-in-the-loop workflows.
- Establish interfaces across spacecraft buses, payloads, avionics, flight software, communications, mission planning, ground control, cloud/edge infrastructure, data platforms, and customer applications.
- Drive systems engineering rigor across requirements, CONOPS, architecture descriptions, interface-control documents, trade studies, test plans, verification matrices, and technical baselines.
- Lead technical readiness for design reviews, test-readiness reviews, demonstrations, launch-readiness activities, commissioning, on-orbit assessments, and customer acceptance.
- Define verification and validation using modeling and simulation, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, integration, mission rehearsal, operational test, and on-orbit validation where applicable.
- Identify and retire technical risks involving sensor or payload degradation, communications interruption, conflicting or deceptive data, resource exhaustion, model uncertainty, interface failures, cyber compromise, and unsafe automated action.
- Partner with product, program, mission operations, security, safety, payload, spacecraft, ground, cloud, and data-engineering leaders while supporting proposals, demonstrations, technical reviews, and customer acceptance.
- Build and mentor a multidisciplinary technical organization including staff engineers, autonomy developers, mission planners, data/ML engineers, test engineers, and domain experts.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, electrical/computer engineering, systems engineering, applied mathematics, robotics, physics, or a related technical discipline; an advanced degree is preferred.
- 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in autonomy, space systems, aerospace, robotics, mission systems, ISR, satellite operations, distributed systems, or comparable complex technical fields.
- Experience as a Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer, Technical Director, Principal/Distinguished Engineer, IPT lead, or equivalent senior technical leader responsible for end-to-end system outcomes.
- Significant experience designing, developing, integrating, testing, and operationalizing software-intensive mission systems with high reliability, mission assurance, or certifiability requirements.
- Technical depth in areas such as autonomous planning and optimization, space mission planning, multi-orbit tasking, embedded/edge/ground/cloud architectures, onboard processing, sensor fusion, payload control, mission-payload exploitation, data-product generation, systems engineering, verification, and risk management.
- Experience leading a multidisciplinary, matrixed engineering organization and influencing outcomes across teams without requiring direct reporting control.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills for explaining complex technical trade-offs to engineers, executives, government customers, operators, and mission partners.
- Experience supporting customer-facing technical work such as proposals, solution architecture, test or demonstration planning, and technical reviews.
- Preferred experience includes national-security or commercial-space programs, transitioning autonomy into sustained operations, operational test, launch preparation, satellite commissioning, on-orbit anomaly response, safety and mission assurance, cybersecurity engineering, secure software development, authorization/compliance, and reusable autonomy platforms.
- Active TS/SCI clearance or established eligibility to obtain and maintain it may be required depending on the program.
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.
- Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
- Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits.
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.