Be an Early Applicant
Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
The Role
Own and improve C++ build and release workflows for autonomy and vision products: maintain reproducible builds, containerised CI/CD pipelines, edge container images, artefact repositories, and deployment/promotion practices for air-gapped and constrained environments. Collaborate with engineers and sysadmins to ensure reliable edge delivery and troubleshoot pipeline and deployment issues.
Summary Generated by Built In
Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. 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.
We’re building intelligent systems that protect service members and civilians. Our autonomy and vision technology is now being adopted across some of the most complex and high-stakes environments in modern defence.
We’ve developed a dedicated software factory for building, optimising, evaluating, and analysing autonomy and vision system solutions - and it’s gaining serious momentum. As demand grows, we’re working closely with partners and customers to solve real warfighting problems and deliver technology that genuinely changes what’s possible.
This role sits at the heart of that mission.
This is a build & release engineering role for teams shipping autonomy software to edge-deployed systems, frequently in isolated / constrained environments. You’ll own the engineering “last mile” between C++ development and dependable delivery: reproducible builds, trustworthy artefacts, promotion across environments, and deployable releases that work where they matter most.
If you love modern C++ toolchains, dependency hygiene, artefact provenance, and making CI/CD fast and deterministic—this is for you.
What You'll Do:
- Own C++ build and release workflows for autonomy and vision products, from source → build → test → package → release.
- Support and evolve containerised CI/CD pipelines across multiple isolated environments (speed, determinism, promotion, repeatability).
- Build and maintain container images for edge deployment
- Manage JFrog/Artifactory repositories for multi-language and generic artefacts; improve versioning, retention, and promotion practices.
- Strengthen dependency and build reproducibility for C++, reducing “works on my machine” and pipeline flakiness.
- Validate and deploy autonomy and vision-system products, tools, and libraries—focusing on edge delivery and reliability.
- Collaborate with engineers and system admins to ensure integration and stability across real deployment environments.
- Tackle complex, meaningful problems that directly support mission outcomes.
What You'll Bring:
- Strong, hands-on experience delivering modern C++ software in production (not just “supporting” it).
- Demonstrated ownership of build systems / toolchains / dependency management (e.g., Conan, CMake, Nix, Ninja, Artifactory —whatever you’ve used to ship real systems).
- Significant recent experience running CI/CD for compiled software and maintaining the surrounding engineering systems (pipelines, runners/agents, artefact stores, promotion gates).
- Significant recent experience in Docker / Podman and containerised workflows
- Strong understanding of Linux/Unix systems.
- Experience debugging and troubleshooting.
- Background in air-gapped or isolated DevOps environments (or similarly constrained delivery contexts).
- Experience supporting Python deployment/distribution (for tooling around the C++ core).
Why Shield AI?
- Help shape the future of defence and autonomy in Australia and beyond.
- Be a key voice in a mission-led business redefining what’s possible with emerging technology.
- Join a growing, values-led team headquartered in Port Melbourne, with strong global partnerships and local autonomy.
- Competitive salary, performance-based incentives, and long-term growth opportunities.
What This Role Is Not:
- Not a “cloud-first” DevOps role focused on standing up cloud infrastructure.
- This role is primarily about C++ build & release engineering and edge delivery - making autonomy software shippable, repeatable, and dependable in real environments.
Help us redefine what’s possible in autonomous defence - apply today.
Salary 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.
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, colour, 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.
Skills Required
- Hands-on experience delivering modern C++ software in production
- Ownership of build systems, toolchains, and dependency management (e.g., Conan, CMake, Nix, Ninja)
- Experience managing JFrog/Artifactory or equivalent artefact repositories and promotion/retention practices
- Significant recent experience running CI/CD for compiled software, maintaining pipelines, runners/agents, and promotion gates
- Significant recent experience with Docker and/or Podman and containerised workflows
- Strong understanding of Linux/Unix systems
- Experience debugging and troubleshooting build, CI, and deployment issues
- Background in air-gapped or isolated DevOps/delivery environments
- Experience supporting Python deployment/distribution for tooling around C++ core
What the Team is Saying
Dylan
Lead Engineer, Planning and Controls-Motion
Mo
Lead Engineer, Platform Automation
Willy
Technical Director
Michael
Engineering Manager - State Estimation
Vibhav
Senior Staff Engineer
Kirby
Mechanical Engineer
Ryan
CEO
Evan
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials describe excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage alongside a mental‑health EAP. Site perks such as an onsite gym in DC and a gym discount in San Diego support a health‑focused offering.
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Retirement Support — Careers materials highlight a 401(k) with company match as part of the standard package. A Total Rewards overview emphasizes retirement features within a broader, transparent compensation view.
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Career-Linked Recognition & Rewards — Compensation for in‑demand technical and senior go‑to‑market roles is described as competitive, with visible engineering ranges and top‑end packages. This points to meaningful upside tied to role, level, and scarce skills.
Shield AI Insights
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The Company
What We Do
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide.
Why Work With Us
What makes Shield AI special is our people. We unlock the power of autonomy, and in the face of overwhelming odds and challenges, we find ways to win and make a difference for our customers. We bring together software, AI, and aerospace engineering disciplines to deploy the most intelligent aviation capabilities in the world.
Gallery
Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Typical time on-site:
3 days a week
