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

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&nbsp;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&nbsp;<a href="https://shield.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.shield.ai</a>. Follow Shield AI on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/shield-ai" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/shieldaitech" rel="noopener noreferrer">X</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/shield_ai" rel="noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Shield_AI" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouTube</a>.&nbsp;<br>

<p>The Autonomous Pilot Integration team for expeditionary platforms builds autonomy solutions for V-BAT — an unmanned&nbsp;aircraft&nbsp;operating&nbsp;in expeditionary environments for ISR, target acquisition, communications, and multi-agent missions. The team also builds autonomy for X-BAT, a new platform under development by the aircraft team; for X-BAT, the team builds on top of the existing mission autonomy solution from the Strategic Systems (ACP) portfolio and works closely with the aircraft team on the flight-autonomy interface. We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g.,&nbsp;ViDAR, ATR), and the&nbsp;HivemindSDK&nbsp;to develop the autonomy software that runs on these platforms, then integrate, validate, and field it on the real hardware — for U.S. and international defense customers.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>In this role,&nbsp;you'll&nbsp;own the technical direction for the Expeditionary portfolio, driving the evolution of autonomy architecture across V-BAT and X-BAT while ensuring scalable, mission-ready solutions that support current operators and future platforms.&nbsp;You'll&nbsp;define long-term technical strategy, solve the organization's most complex integration challenges, and influence the direction of autonomy software spanning mission behaviors, platform interfaces, payload integration, executive autonomy, and multi-agent operations.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You'll&nbsp;partner closely with the Aircraft team, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), engineering leadership, customer/program offices, and operational users to ensure Expeditionary autonomy continues to evolve while&nbsp;remaining&nbsp;reliable in operational environments.&nbsp;</p>

What You'll Do:

<p><strong>Technical Strategy &amp; Portfolio Leadership</strong>&nbsp;– Define and drive the long-term technical direction for Expeditionary autonomy across V-BAT, X-BAT, and future platforms.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Develop &amp; Field Autonomy</strong>&nbsp;– Guide development of mission autonomy, payload integration, flight-autonomy interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi-agent capabilities while ensuring successful operational deployment.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Aircraft Team Partnership</strong>&nbsp;– Establish long-term technical strategy with the Aircraft team for platform integration, interface evolution, and mission readiness.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Cross-Engineering Leadershi</strong>p&nbsp;– Influence architecture across the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), Aircraft, and customer organizations.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Subject Matter Expertise</strong>&nbsp;– Serve as the organization's technical expert for complex autonomy integration challenges spanning software, hardware, and operations.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Design &amp; Engineering Excellence</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>– Lead architecture reviews, engineering standards, interface definitions, and organization-wide technical improvements.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Mentorship &amp; Organizational Growth</strong>&nbsp;– Mentor senior engineers, develop technical leaders, contribute to leveling frameworks, and partner on senior hiring.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Mission Readiness &amp; Operational Excellence</strong>&nbsp;– Guide customer releases, deployment strategy, and mission validation while supporting critical operational events.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Continuous Improvement</strong>&nbsp;– Drive long-term improvements to engineering processes, integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and developer experience.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>C2 Interoperability &amp; Open Systems</strong>&nbsp;– Define technical strategy for command-and-control interoperability and adoption of open-systems standards.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Hiring &amp; Developing Technical Talent</strong>&nbsp;– Define the technical hiring bar for senior engineering roles, partner with engineering managers on long-term staffing strategy, and help grow the organization's technical capabilities.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Travel Requirement</strong>&nbsp;– 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.&nbsp;</p>

Required Qualifications:

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<p>BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>10+ years of relevant experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Proven&nbsp;track record&nbsp;influencing architecture and solving&nbsp;highly complex&nbsp;systems integration challenges.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.&nbsp;</p>

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Preferred Qualifications:

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<p>Extensive experience with Group 3 UAS, VTOL platforms, or comparable autonomous systems.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;</p></li></ul>