Manager of Engineering - Autonomous Pilot Integration - Expeditionary (R5175)

Shield AI is seeking a Manager of Engineering for its Autonomous Pilot Integration team, focusing on expeditionary platforms. The successful candidate will lead a team of autonomy engineers primarily working on Hivemind for V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. The role involves developing and integrating autonomy software solutions, managing a team, and collaborating with various stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

• Lead a small to mid-sized engineering team of 5-10 engineers, owning their delivery, growth, and technical health
• Grow the team through hiring, mentoring engineers, and shaping their career development
• Collaborate closely with the aircraft team that builds and maintains V-BAT and X-BAT
• Develop and field autonomy software solutions for V-BAT and X-BAT, including payload and sensor integration
• Provide technical leadership, set technical direction, and report progress to leadership and stakeholders
• Stay hands-on, contributing directly to the code where it serves the team
• Collaborate across teams and partners, including Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams
• Design and document technical aspects, drive design reviews, and push the team toward higher rigor
• Prepare for pre-deployment, own the build, configuration, and validation process for mission-ready systems
• Support on-site test and mission activities, including travel to test sites and customer exercises
• Troubleshoot and resolve integration issues across complex autonomy stacks and embedded systems
• Capture mission and test data, reproduce issues in simulation, and drive fixes
• Build tools and processes to improve integration timelines, test/mission reliability, and team efficiency

Requirements:

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or similar
• Minimum 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 5 years and a Master's degree; or 4 years with a PhD
• 2+ years of direct people-management experience
• Demonstrated experience building or growing an engineering team, mentoring engineers, and leading a small technical team
• Experience with Group 3 unmanned aircraft, VTOL platforms, or comparable medium-sized unmanned systems
• Strong proficiency in C++, Linux-based development, and experience with embedded systems
• Familiarity with middleware, pub-sub, or IPC frameworks used in autonomy or robotics systems
• Hands-on experience supporting live exercises, customer demonstrations, or operational test events
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance

Preferred qualifications:

• Direct experience integrating autonomy with custom or in-house autopilot stacks
• Experience integrating autonomy with VTOL or hybrid-mode aircraft
• Experience with EO/IR or ViDAR-class sensor integration
• Proficiency in Python for scripting, automation, and analysis