Description
Shield AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to help drive the design, development, and integration of a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product.
The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for a suite of core products and capabilities that brings resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments.
As a member of the Foundations team, you will be responsible for driving C++ software development against rigorous coding standards and requirements, integration of reusable safety capabilities into production systems, defining clean interfaces and tests, and turning safety-critical designs into reliable software that can fly, including support for X-BAT, Shield AI's flagship Group 5 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) UAV.
Responsibilities:
- Drive architecture, development, integration and testing of an extensible, configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) module that ensures safe operation of autonomous systems in diverse, adversarial conditions.
- Work closely with other engineers in Foundations to design and integrate with the low-assurance mission-autonomy software and high-assurance middleware.
- Specialize, integrate and test the RTA capability on a diverse set of platforms in various conditions to ensure robust fail-safe behavior.
- Drive principled software development practices across Foundations including but not limited to code analysis, audit trail, principled review processes.
- Collaborate with the team to generate artifacts that enable certifiability of Foundations software, including but not limited to static & dynamic analysis reports, software documentation, architecture decision records (ADRs), interface control diagrams (ICDs), system models.
- Mentor and guide Foundations developers on practices of safe software development to enhance software quality and assurance.
Requirements:
- Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years with a Master’s degree; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Demonstrated excellence in designing and developing C++ based safety-critical software systems with Real-Time guarantees.
- Experience working as a mentor to other engineers in a role driving software best practices to enhance software quality.
- Experience integrating software on real-world physical systems and driving up performance and reliability.
- Deep expertise in C++ software architecture design patterns and their practical implementation.
- Strong knowledge of software assurance certifications such as DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516.
- Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices (e.g., CI/CD, test-driven development).
- A track record of technical leadership, with the ability to set and maintain high standards, guide teams through complex technical challenges, and collaborate effectively.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards (e.g., MISRA C++, JSF AV C++)
- Hands-on experience with airworthiness certifications such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C.
- Experience taking a solution through a certification process and achieving a certification.
Benefits:
- Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
- Temporary employee offer package: Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)