Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities – Maritime (R5339)

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. 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 team operates at all levels of the command-and-control hierarchy (from advanced control laws, through motion planning, and up to advanced tactical behaviors and multi-agent coordination) and across a multitude of mission sets, platform types, and operational domains (e.g., air, sea, space). The team puts a strong emphasis on both fundamentals (e.g., aircraft kinematics/dynamics, trajectory design, optimization, information fusion, efficient algorithms, etc.) and software integration skillsets (e.g. structures, protocols, threading, interface management, etc.) to bring market-differentiating capabilities to customers that seamlessly operate within their integration contexts. This position is perfect for an individual who enjoys solving complex problems across a diverse set of programs and integration contexts. An ideal candidate is expected to address operational system needs through a multitude of advanced methodologies that blend traditional control system approaches with advanced optimization. Developed solutions are expected to be integrated into real-world platforms with near-term program impacts and rewards and so balancing theory with practice and rigorous implementa

About the Job:: Focusing on the maritime portfolio, you’ll be creating autonomy capabilities for USVs, UUVs, and cooperating UAVs that enable them to perform advanced single- and multi-agent teaming missions beyond conventional motion planning and waypoint following. The functionality you add will enable teams to use their diverse payloads and maneuvering characteristics to search for, localize, and pursue targets while avoiding sensed threats and obstacles that pose a risk to platform safety. In many of these applications, you’ll have the opportunity to build capabilities from the ground up and be the first to integrate them onto new platforms. You’ll traditionally start with shorter-term R&D efforts or aligned customer programs but with the intent that successful efforts will grow into larger, multi-year programs. As a Senior engineer, you will develop and own major features from end-to-end, from design through operational deployment, and work closely with cross-functional teammates to achieve program goals. You’ll also take an active role in mentoring more junior engineers and may directly interface in customers in limited capacities. What You'll Do:: Robust Motion Planning – Automate unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and/or unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) maneuvering through advanced motion planning and adherence to safety constraints including keep-out volumes, cooperative and uncooperative vehicles, and depth limitations Localization and Tracking – Employ cutting edge approaches for passive and active localization by defining fusion modalities, sensor requirements, and observability-aware maneuvering capabilities to maximize information gleaned from single- or multi-agent sensor networks Safe Maritime Operations – Keep vehicle safety as a central focus within autonomous behavior architectures to provide run-time assurance, ensure COLREGS adherence, and build operator trust in advanced mission autonomy Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Collaboration – Develop distribute