Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5193)
TLDR
Define long-term autonomy direction across V-BAT and X-BAT, delivering mission-ready, multi-agent autonomy.
Technical Strategy & Portfolio Leadership – Define and drive the long-term technical direction for Expeditionary autonomy across V-BAT, X-BAT, and future platforms.
Develop & Field Autonomy – Guide development of mission autonomy, payload integration, flight-autonomy interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi-agent capabilities while ensuring successful operational deployment.
Aircraft Team Partnership – Establish long-term technical strategy with the Aircraft team for platform integration, interface evolution, and mission readiness.
Cross-Engineering Leadership – Influence architecture across the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), Aircraft, and customer organizations.
Subject Matter Expertise – Serve as the organization's technical expert for complex autonomy integration challenges spanning software, hardware, and operations.
Design & Engineering Excellence – Lead architecture reviews, engineering standards, interface definitions, and organization-wide technical improvements.
Mentorship & Organizational Growth – Mentor senior engineers, develop technical leaders, contribute to leveling frameworks, and partner on senior hiring.
Mission Readiness & Operational Excellence – Guide customer releases, deployment strategy, and mission validation while supporting critical operational events.
Continuous Improvement – Drive long-term improvements to engineering processes, integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and developer experience.
C2 Interoperability & Open Systems – Define technical strategy for command-and-control interoperability and adoption of open-systems standards.
Hiring & Developing Technical Talent – 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.
Travel Requirement – 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.
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BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
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10+ years of relevant experience.
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Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
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Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.
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Proven track record influencing architecture and solving highly complex systems integration challenges.
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Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence.
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Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
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Extensive experience with Group 3 UAS, VTOL platforms, or comparable autonomous systems.
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Experience defining flight-autonomy interfaces or custom autopilot integrations.
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Experience deploying autonomy to operational military systems.
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Experience with international defense customers.
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Experience with STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS, and open-systems architectures.
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Experience shaping engineering practices across an organization.
Benefits
Equity Compensation
Equity
Bonus
Shield AI builds advanced AI-powered autonomy systems for military and defense applications, enabling mission-critical operations in contested environments. Our platform, Hivemind, supports developers and operators with robust tools for quick adaptation and deployment, ensuring superior situational awareness and operational efficiency. With unique solutions like the AI-piloted X-BAT and ViDAR surveillance system, we are transforming how defense technology meets real-world challenges.
- Founded
- Founded 2015
- Employees
- 51-200 employees
- Industry
- Internet Software & Services