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Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Emerging Domains (R5401)

Shield AI · Washington, D.C. · San Diego, California · Boston, Massachusetts · Dallas, Texas

Spotted 92d agoFull-time

Job details

Work mode
On-site
Employment
Full-time
Level
Staff / principal
Posted
Jul 21, 2026
Last confirmed open
Oct 21, 2026

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Company-specific questions

  • This position may require access to information and technology that is subject to export controls, such as EAR. Are you any of the following?
  • Shield AI provides technology, services, and support to the United States military and allied forces with their various missions. If selected for employment with Shield AI, your contributions will directly relate to and/or support these missions. Are there any reasons why you would not be able to fully contribute in support of the U.S. military and allied forces?
  • Are you a transitioning service member?
  • What full time job(s) are you applying for?essay
Job description

About this role

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.

The Autonomous Pilot Integration team for Emerging Domains builds autonomy solutions for new platforms and mission profiles outside Shield AI's established portfolios—including space (satellites, missile defense), maritime (USV and UUV integration), and contested logistics (unmanned helicopters and related autonomous resupply platforms).

The team takes on short-term R&D and integration efforts—often standing up the first autonomy on a brand-new platform or mission—with the intent that successful efforts grow into larger, multi-year programs.

We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., ViDAR, ATR), and the HivemindSDK—selectively leveraging existing Shield AI autonomy solutions where they apply—to develop autonomy that runs on these new platforms.

Our engineers write new autonomy code—such as mission behaviors, platform-specific control, multi-agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy—and own it end-to-end from software-in-the-loop, to hardware-in-the-loop, to vehicle-in-the-loop, to live test exercise.

In this role, you'll lead the technical delivery of complex autonomy capabilities across Emerging Domains, helping establish first-of-their-kind autonomy solutions for new platforms and mission areas.

You'll own challenging integration efforts, influence technical direction across multiple subsystems, and work closely with platform teams and cross-functional engineering organizations to transition early R&D efforts into scalable, operational capabilities.

Interested in this role?Continue on Shield AI's careers page.
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