Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities (R5368)

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

The Autonomy Capabilities Team develops functionality to automate single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives and acts as a central discipline-aligned focal-point for encouraging consistent usage of technical approaches across business portfolios.

This position is perfect for an individual who enjoys solving complex problems across a diverse set of programs and integration contexts.

Responsibilities:

• Design tactical autonomy algorithms to enable unmanned aircraft to perform complex missions across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision.
• Develop high-performance software modules that incorporate planning, decision-making, and behavior execution strategies for dynamic and adversarial environments.
• Implement and test behavior architectures that enable multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios.
• Work at the intersection of classical autonomy and machine learning, blending rule-based systems with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning to achieve robust, adaptive behavior.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms.
• Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demos, validating performance in operationally relevant conditions.
• Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures, optimize behavior models, and inform iterative development.
• Contribute to the autonomy roadmap by researching and prototyping new algorithms, identifying tactical capability gaps, and proposing novel solutions that advance Shield AI’s mission.
• Support defense-focused programs and customer needs by adapting autonomy solutions to evolving mission sets, compliance requirements, and operational feedback.

Requirements:

• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• Proficient in production-level C++ software development.
• 7+ years' experience in one or more of the following: software sub-system scheduling and integration, behavior planning, task and resource allocation, motion planning, optimization, or flight controls.
• Experience with collaborative software development tools for version control, issue tracking, code reviews, and release management.
• Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams, set technical direction, and manage full project lifecycles from concept to deployment.
• Capacity to learn and grow individually, while mentoring junior team members effectively, building team cohesion and capacity.
• Desire to work in a highly collaborative, fast-paced, enthusiastic, and mission-centric environment.
• Capacity to act as the technical owner for an entire software system, including stakeholder engagement, requirements definition, roadmap management, team co-ordination, design, implementation, sustainment, and evolution.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience across a breadth of technology readiness levels (TRLs) and demonstration of bridging concepts from research-grade to operationally ready.
• Experience with mission systems integration, and ideally, hands-on experience supporting integration events and/or flight demonstrations.
• Experience across a multitude of application areas, including but not limited to: Collaborative mission planning, behavior planning, synchronized teaming, Automated red force vs blue force tactics, Motion planning across a variety of vehicle classes, kinematic constraints, and team compositions, Weapons target assignment, Sensor target pairing, sensor-centric control laws, Collision avoidance, geofencing, and safety-monitoring.
• Experience in more than one operational effect (e.g., strike, air combat, surveillance, reconnaissance, etc.) and more than one associated domain (e.g., air, space, maritime, ground, etc.).
• Experience with FOSS software that is commonly used in robotic systems (e.g., ROS, OMPL, optimization solvers, etc.).
• Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for testing and validation.
• Familiarity with practical aspects of navigation and communications systems.
• Experience across the product delivery lifecycle, from emerging opportunity through system acceptance, deployment, and sustainment.
• Familiarity with systems engineering methodologies.
• Familiarity with high-assurance software development processes (e.g., DO-178C or equivalent MIL-STD's).

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)

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.