Lead Software Architect for XBAT Program

Lead the software architecture for Shield AI's XBAT program across Mission, Vehicle, and Autonomy software domains. Build a safe, secure, and scalable architecture that enables high-assurance, cyber-relevant software development for an advanced airborne system and its ground stations, reporting to the XBAT Software Lead.

Key responsibilities include:

• Defining and evolving the system-wide software architecture for XBAT, spanning airborne vehicle, ground station, and autonomy layers.
• Translating safety and security goals into technical requirements, standards, and design patterns that guide engineers across multiple software teams.
• Ensuring architecture supports safety-critical and cyber-relevant workflows, including formalizing architecture decisions, traceability, and compliance pathways appropriate for advanced airborne systems.
• Driving cross-team alignment on APIs, data flows, fault handling, verification strategy, and risk management so mission, vehicle, and autonomy components integrate cleanly.
• Partnering with engineering leadership, system architects, and validation teams to balance innovation speed with rigorous assurance practices.
• Setting technical direction for long-term scalability: modularity, maintainability, testability, and support for future capability growth or certification needs.
• Mentoring senior engineers and architects, raising the bar for design rigor, documentation quality, and architectural judgment across the organization.
• Producing and maintaining architecture artifacts: high-level system diagrams, component interfaces, data models, risk analyses, and design rationales.
• Leading technical reviews for major features, changes, or integration points; ensuring alignment with architectural standards and safety/security constraints.
• Defining architecture governance: decision records, change control processes, quality gates, and collaboration flows among development, verification, and operations.
• Collaborating with systems, hardware, and avionics teams to manage boundaries, timing, resource allocation, and failure modes that affect overall aircraft and mission performance.
• Driving technology evaluation and roadmap: selecting or validating frameworks, middleware, and tooling that meet performance, assurance, and cyber-hardening needs.
• Supporting external or internal readiness evaluations: providing architectural evidence, participating in reviews, and helping the program articulate compliance posture as requirements evolve.
• Advocating for continuous improvement in architecture practice: metrics, architecture reviews, knowledge sharing, and onboarding for new team members.