Senior Staff Engineer, Software Autonomy (R5125)

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: The Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy will function as a hands on technical lead / subject matter expert and collaborate with Shield AI teammates / customers to build edge-AI and autonomy software for platforms across sea, air, and space. This role involves working closely with customers to understand their requirements, writing code, developing new capabilities and ensuring successful software/hardware integration, and mentoring teammates.

What you'll do:: Examples of Projects You will Work On: Autonomous teaming drones. Teaming between helicopters and drones. Autonomy on Robodogs. AI Pilots for Fighter Jets and more! Learn Hivemind: Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise Autonomy Software Development Kit. Tactical Autonomy Design – Design tactical autonomy algorithms to enable unmanned aircraft to perform complex missions across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision. High-Performance Software Development – Develop high-performance software modules that incorporate planning, decision-making, and behavior execution strategies for dynamic and adversarial environments. Behavior Architecture Implementation – Implement and test behavior architectures that enable multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios. Hybrid Autonomy Integration – 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. Hardware Software Integration: Cross-Functional Collaboration – Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms. Deployment & Field Testing – Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demos, validating performance in operationally relevant conditions. Mission Data Analysis – Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures, optimize behavior models, and inform iterative development. R&D and Roadmapping – 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. Program Support & Adaptation – Support defense-focused programs and customer needs by adapting autonomy solutions to ev