# Senior Engineer, Safety-Critical Software (R5788)

**Company**: Shield AI
**Location**: San Diego, California
**Work arrangement**: onsite
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: Full Time Employee
**Salary**: USD 160,000-250,000 per-year-salary
**Category**: Engineering
**Industry**: Technology

**Apply**: https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/bfa00574-c549-48fb-9065-2840c4d17cfc?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_a089e23c-765

## Description

Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to help design, develop, and integrate 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 C++ software development, 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

- Develop, integrate, and test configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) components that monitor autonomy behavior and support safe operation across representative platforms and scenarios.

- Adapt reusable C++ safety capabilities into production runtime components, including interface integration, configuration wiring, and unit, component, and integration tests.

- Implement real-time C++ code at the boundary between mission autonomy, high-assurance middleware, and flight-control interfaces.

- Integrate safety-critical software with aircraft hardware for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and flight-test campaigns, scaling from single-aircraft test points to multi-agent collaborative CONOPS.

- Strengthen engineering evidence through CI, static and dynamic analysis, focused code reviews, software documentation, software designs, ICDs, system models, test results, and traceability artifacts.

- Share safe software practices through code reviews, design discussions, and clear technical write-ups.

## Required qualifications

- Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 4 years with a Master’s degree; or 2 year with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.

- Strong C++ development experience, including modern C++, testing, debugging, and performance-aware design.

- Experience building software for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or similarly constrained systems.

- Experience integrating software with hardware, simulation, Hardware in the Loop (HIL), or production-like test environments and diagnosing reliability or performance issues.

- Familiarity with C++ software design patterns and the ability to work effectively within an existing architecture.

- Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices such as CI/CD and test-focused development.

- Ability to write clear technical documentation and collaborate across software, systems, test, and platform teams.

## Preferred qualifications

- Experience with autonomy middleware, interface definitions, Python-based configuration tooling, CMake, Conan, or reusable C++ library integration.

- Familiarity with high-reliability or safety-critical development practices, such as static analysis, coding standards, traceability, and requirements-based testing.

- Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards such as MISRA C++ or JSF AV C++.

- Hands-on experience with airworthiness or software assurance frameworks such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C, or equivalent safety standards.

- Experience taking a software component through verification, qualification, or certification evidence review.

## Skills

### Required
- C++ development
- modern C++
- testing
- debugging
- performance-aware design
- real-time systems
- embedded systems
- robotics
- autonomy
- aerospace
- software integration
- hardware integration
- simulation
- Hardware in the Loop (HIL)
- production-like test environments
- Git
- Linux
- CI/CD
- test-focused development

### Nice to have
- autonomy middleware
- interface definitions
- Python-based configuration tooling
- CMake
- Conan
- reusable C++ library integration
- high-reliability development practices
- safety-critical development practices
- static analysis
- coding standards
- traceability
- requirements-based testing
- MISRA C++
- JSF AV C++
- airworthiness
- software assurance frameworks
- MIL-HDBK-516
- DO-178C

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Source: [Apply at jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/bfa00574-c549-48fb-9065-2840c4d17cfc?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply)