Principal Engineer, State Estimation (R4602)

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. Job Description: We are looking for an experienced state estimation engineer to design, develop, and support the deployment of safety-critical navigation solutions for aerospace platforms. This role requires deep expertise in state estimation theory, extensive practical experience implementing ownship navigation systems in the aerospace domain, and strong software development skills for production-quality navigation code. The engineer will design and implement a unified navigation architecture that supports traditional GNSS/IMU fusion while being extensible to all-source navigation strategies incorporating diverse sensing modalities for GPS-degraded and denied environments.

What you'll do:: Navigation System Architecture & Design: Establish navigation performance requirements and error budgets for safety-critical applications Support decomposition of navigation requirements into allocations for sensors, estimation algorithms, and software components Design detailed software architecture for state estimation implementations, including module interfaces and data flow Algorithm Development & Implementation: Design and implement Extended Kalman Filter algorithms for navigation applications, with broad understanding of state estimation theory and alternative filtering approaches Implement tightly-coupled and loosely-coupled GNSS/INS integration algorithms Integrate diverse sensing modalities (vision, RF, celestial etc.) into multi-sensor fusion framework for GPS-degraded environments Develop fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) strategies for navigation systems Implement integrity monitoring and protection level calculations for safety-critical operations Certification & Verification: Develop verification and validation test plans for navigation algorithms onduct performance analysis including Monte Carlo simulation, covariance analysis, and flight test data evaluation Document navigation system design, requirements allocation, and compliance evidence Support safety assessment activities including failure modes and effects analysis Technical Leadership: Provide technical guidance on navigation architecture and state estimation approaches Support trade studies evaluating navigation sensor suites and fusion strategies Mentor junior engineers on state estimation theory and implementation Required qualifications:: MS or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or related field 15+ years of experience developing state estimation algorithms for aerospace navigation applications Demonstrated experience implementing GNSS/INS integration solu