Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy (R5837)

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.

Shield AI is a venture-backed defence technology company building intelligent autonomous systems for aircraft. Our mission is to protect service members and civilians through AI and autonomy.

We’re on the lookout for an experienced Staff Engineer, Autonomy to join our Hivemind Solutions team and help design, build, and deploy real-world autonomous capabilities for uncrewed systems. This is a hands-on engineering role, blending software development with robotics, perception, and path planning. You’ll be joining a high-performing team shaping the future of AI pilots for solving real-world problems.

If you’re a capable C++ developer with a passion for robotics and autonomy, this is your chance to make a real impact.

Design and implement autonomous behaviours for uncrewed aircraft.

Work with real sensor data and build robust sensor fusion solutions.

Develop and test autonomy systems in high-fidelity software and hardware in-the-loop simulations.

Integrate Shield AI autonomy products together with third-party aircraft and systems.

Collaborate across AI, robotics, and systems engineering teams to deliver integrated solutions.

Contribute to architecture, code quality, design reviews and best practices.

Lead and Mentor junior engineers

A tertiary level qualification in Computer Science, Mechatronics, Software Engineering, Aerospace, Robotics or a related field

Significant professional experience in robotics, autonomy, perception or aerospace systems

Strong experience in modern C++

Significant experience in building and delivering reliable software systems, ideally in fast-paced environments

Prior experience with uncrewed systems, especially in the air domain

Defence industry experience

Significant experience in one or more of the following domains:

State Estimation

Real-Time Systems

Guidance, Navigation and Control

Path Planning