2 months ago
Base Salary
$234k - $351k/yr
Responsibilities
- Develop, integrate, validate, and field autonomy software on unmanned air, maritime, space, ground, or effects/expendables platforms.
- Write autonomy code for mission behaviors, platform-specific control, multi-agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy.
- Lead a small feature crew or sub-program through design, development, integration, and delivery.
- Set technical direction, break down work, remove blockers, and report progress to leadership and stakeholders.
- Coordinate with Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, feature crews, platform integrators, vehicle/autopilot vendors, C2 providers, and other external partners.
- Author and negotiate interface control documents and interface contracts.
- Mentor mid-level engineers, support onboarding and growth planning, interview candidates, and onboard senior hires.
- Drive design reviews, documentation, post-mortems, process improvements, and cross-team technical rigor.
- Own build, configuration, compatibility, validation, and release preparation for mission-ready systems.
- Travel to test sites and support flight tests, range exercises, on-water trials, integration events, and live mission operations.
- Debug memory, CPU, timing, hardware/software, payload computer, and embedded-system integration issues in lab and field environments.
- Capture mission data, reproduce issues in simulation, and drive fixes into subsequent builds.
- Implement and validate C2 interoperability standards including A-GRA, UCI, and OMS.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a similar field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Typically requires at least 7 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 5 years with a master’s degree, 4 years with a PhD, or equivalent work experience.
- Proficiency in C++ and experience developing or integrating real-time or latency-sensitive systems.
- Proficiency in Linux-based development, embedded systems, shell scripting, and system diagnostics.
- Familiarity with middleware, publish-subscribe, or IPC frameworks used in autonomy or robotics systems, such as DDS and message buses.
- Hands-on experience supporting demonstrations, exercises, or field and mission tests for unmanned or autonomous systems.
- Experience with autonomy simulation environments for testing and validation.
- Experience leading a small technical team or owning a major capability from design through field delivery.
- Experience mentoring engineers and developing technical talent.
- Experience authoring or negotiating interface contracts or ICDs with internal or external stakeholders.
- Strong full-stack system troubleshooting, performance optimization, communication, and teamwork abilities.
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
- Preferred qualifications include unmanned-systems field-test experience, Python proficiency, partner-facing technical leadership, autonomy or motion-planning experience, vehicle electronics and payload computer integration, hardware-in-the-loop debugging, container orchestration, PX4 or ArduPilot experience, system-test automation, Conan or CMake build experience, CI/CD familiarity, DoD stakeholder interaction, C2 standards experience, and familiarity with AFSIM or NGTS.
Benefits
- Full-time regular employees receive bonus, benefits, and equity in addition to base pay.
- Temporary employees receive a temporary benefits package applicable after 60 days of employment.
- The role typically involves 10–20% travel to offices, customer sites, and integration or test events.
- Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
- Shield AI provides equal employment opportunity and reasonable accommodation for disabilities or special needs.
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.