Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5193)

Shield AI is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to join the Autonomous Pilot Integration team for expeditionary platforms. The team builds autonomy solutions for V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, combining capabilities from various teams to develop and integrate autonomy software.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical direction for Expeditionary autonomy across V-BAT, X-BAT, and future platforms
• Guide development of mission autonomy, payload integration, flight-autonomy interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi-agent capabilities
• Establish long-term technical strategy with the Aircraft team for platform integration, interface evolution, and mission readiness
• Influence architecture across Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), Aircraft, and customer organizations
• Serve as the organization's technical expert for complex autonomy integration challenges
• Lead architecture reviews, engineering standards, interface definitions, and organization-wide technical improvements
• Mentor senior engineers, develop technical leaders, contribute to leveling frameworks, and partner on senior hiring
• Guide customer releases, deployment strategy, and mission validation while supporting critical operational events
• Drive long-term improvements to engineering processes, integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and developer experience

Requirements

• BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of relevant experience
• Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience
• Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs
• Proven track record influencing architecture and solving highly complex systems integration challenges
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive experience with Group 3 UAS, VTOL platforms, or comparable autonomous systems
• Experience defining flight-autonomy interfaces or custom autopilot integrations
• Experience deploying autonomy to operational military systems
• Experience with international defense customers
• Experience with STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS, and open-systems architectures
• Experience shaping engineering practices across an organization

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)

Travel Requirement

• Members of this team typically travel around 10–20% of the year to different office locations, customer sites, operator training events, flight tests, and integration exercises