Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Integration (R2599)

Introduction to Shield AI Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company whose mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

In pursuit of this mission, Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot. Its AI pilot, Hivemind, has flown a fighter jet (F-16), a vertical takeoff and landing drone (V-BAT), and a quadcopter (Nova).

The company has offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington DC and abroad. Shield AI’s products and people are currently in the field actively supporting operations with the Department of Defense and allies.

An autonomy engineer on the Hivemind Systems Integration team will be responsible for integrating autonomy libraries, command applications, and developer tooling / infrastructure into a cohesive product that can applied across a wide range of applications.

Our goal is to provide defect-free product releases at a regular cadence and ensure that internal and external customers are able to rapidly build upon Hivemind.

What You'll Do :

• Release a cohesive autonomy product (Hivemind) at a regular cadence, including core autonomy libraries, command and control frontends, and autonomy SDKs.
• Support integration across the various Hivemind product teams and step in to help with implementation when required.
• Identify, triage, and resolve issues that affect the entire autonomy stack.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and design and implement solutions for them.
• Integrate new autonomy features, implement end-to-end tests that exercise the new features, and release new software packages at a regular cadence.

Implement tooling to help with regular releases.

• Write and integrate new simulation and playback capabilities into standard developer workflows. This includes faster-than-realtime simulation, flight playback tooling, and scalable simulations.
• Work with platform teams to deploy autonomy stack onto new platforms and hardware.
• Support integration with 3rd party components.
• Help triage and resolve bugs generated by downstream consumers.
• Work with the autonomy teams to resolve issues that might require more in-depth solutions.

Required Qualifications :

Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years and a Master’s degree;

or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.

• Deep experience with C++14 and beyond
• Experience with Python
• Experience with git or other modern version control systems ( mercurial)
• Experience working in large, complex, distributed systems
• You have a demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others.
• You have a willingness to jump out of your comfort zone to help out other teammates as needed.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications :

• Experience with C++17 or greater
• Comfortable analyzing data to improve design and performance of a system
• Experience with hands-on debugging of complex software and autonomy systems
• Experience with robotics frameworks, such as ROS, and simulators (;
• Experience with cloud-based systems and infrastructure, containerisation technologies, Kubernetes, etc.
• Familiarity with CUDA, streaming video, hardware integration, networking, communications
• Understanding about a wide range of autonomy products

$215,972 - $323,959 a year#LC#LI-OE1 Total package details : Regular employee positions : Salary within range listed above + Bonus + Benefits + Equity Temporary employee positions : Hourly within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)*Interns / Military Fellows / Part-time not eligible for bonus, benefits or equityActual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location.

All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.If you're interested in being part of our team, apply now! Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.