Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5208)

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;</p>

<p>&nbsp;<br>In this role,&nbsp;you'll&nbsp;lead the technical delivery of complex autonomy capabilities spanning platform integration, mission autonomy, and operational deployment.&nbsp;You'll&nbsp;own some of the team's most challenging technical problems—from defining flight-autonomy interfaces and integrating advanced payloads to driving mission readiness for customer releases.&nbsp;You'll&nbsp;influence technical direction across multiple subsystems while partnering closely with the Aircraft team, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), feature crews, and customer stakeholders.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You'll&nbsp;combine deep technical&nbsp;expertise&nbsp;with systems thinking to drive successful integration across software, hardware, and operations while mentoring engineers and improving engineering practices across the Expeditionary portfolio.&nbsp;</p>

What You'll Do:

<p><strong>Lead Technical Delivery</strong>&nbsp;– Lead the technical execution of complex autonomy capabilities from architecture through field deployment, coordinating work across multiple engineering teams.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Develop &amp; Field Autonomy</strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong>– Drive integration of mission autonomy, payloads, flight-control interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi-agent behaviors onto V-BAT and X-BAT.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Aircraft Team Partnership</strong>&nbsp;– Serve as a primary technical partner to the Aircraft team, defining integration approaches, resolving interface issues, and ensuring mission readiness.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Cross-Team Technical Leadership</strong>&nbsp;– Partner across Aircraft, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), and feature crews to solve complex systems integration challenges.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Systems Architecture &amp; Integration</strong>&nbsp;– Influence architecture, interface design, and integration strategy across multiple subsystems.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Design &amp; Engineering Excellence</strong>&nbsp;– Lead design reviews, contribute to ICDs, mentor engineers, and improve engineering rigor.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Mission Readiness &amp; Field Support</strong>&nbsp;– Drive release readiness while supporting flight tests, customer demonstrations, and operational deployments.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Continuous Improvement</strong>&nbsp;– Improve integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and engineering productivity.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>C2 Interoperability &amp; Standards</strong>&nbsp;– Drive implementation of GCS and C2 interfaces using common open-systems standards.&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>7+ years of relevant experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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

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<p>Experience leading complex autonomy or embedded software integration efforts.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Experience influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Experience supporting operational test events or customer deployments.&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>Experience with Group 3 UAS or VTOL&nbsp;aircraft.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Experience with custom autopilot integration.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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