2 days ago
San Mateo, CA, USAStaff+
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
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide.