Perception Software Engineer

This role is the primary interface between perception software and the flight test enterprise at Shield AI, a venture-backed defense-tech company. You will work with autonomy/perception software developers, flight test engineers, and platform integration teams to mature capabilities from algorithm to flight-verified system.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate software and hardware integration activities for autonomy team to deploy and test their stack across various platforms.
• Drive sensor selection for EO/IR and A-PNT perception software testing on operationally relevant or surrogate platforms.
• Own the fly-fix-fly cycle for autonomy and perception software: integrate the Hivemind Pilot stack onto target hardware, verify correct deployment and configuration, define test objectives for flight test campaigns, help execute tests in the field, and analyze collected data.
• Own sensor calibration and time synchronization processes for all A-PNT and perception sensors used in testing.
• Establish data quality standards and curate data management processes for field-collected sensor data.
• Resolve technical and logistical ambiguities at the boundary between software development and flight test operations.

Required qualifications:

• Minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years and a Master’s degree; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Hands-on experience calibrating and time-aligning EO/IR and position, navigation, and timing (PNT) sensors.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in fast-paced field testing environments.
• Experience in design of experiments, flight test card development, and establishing verifiable, measurable test objectives.
• Experience deploying perception or autonomy software to edge hardware platforms.
• Proficiency in Python for data analysis and visualization; comfort reading and making targeted modifications to algorithms implemented in C++.
• Track record of solving problems that span hardware, software, and engineering capacity constraints across functional or organizational boundaries.
• Demonstrated academic training or professional experience in a core perception discipline such as object detection, object tracking, SLAM, or navigation.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with camera calibration frameworks and camera-IMU extrinsic and temporal calibration workflows.
• Familiarity with rosbag-based data collection, replay, and analysis pipelines in robotics or autonomy systems.
• Experience characterizing EO/IR gimbal cameras.
• Background supporting DoD or defense aviation programs.
• Familiarity with Conan-based, Nix-based, or CMake-based build systems and embedded Linux development.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and test automation in the context of embedded software.

Benefits:

• Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity (for full-time regular employees)
• Pay within range listed + temporary benefits package (for temporary employees)

Location: Hybrid, based at Shield AI's San Diego, CA headquarters (three days per week in office), with periodic travel to flight test sites required.