Introduction to Shield AI

Shield AI’s mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Shield AI is a fast growing, venture-backed defense-technology company built around a team of proven executives, distinguished warfighters, and world-class AI engineers. Since 2018, Shield AI’s products and people have supported operations around the world with the US Department of Defense and our allies. Most recently, we acquired Heron Systems and Martin UAV as wholly owned subsidiaries of Shield AI. Join our team and shape the future of artificially intelligent systems. 

Are you a passionate and innovative autonomy engineer looking to help develop state of the art robots and AI products? Are you eager to make a positive difference in the world? Do you want to work alongside mission-driven and values focused teammates? Shield AI is just the place for you! 

The Planning and Controls (PAC) team is an agile group of engineers focused on researching and developing state-of-the-art algorithms that drive intelligent and confidence-inspiring flight behaviors while accounting for an uncertain and dynamic world. 

As a member of PAC, you will work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, task & motion planning, and controls. You will architect core systems, set standards for software engineering, drive strategic technical improvements, and mentor other engineers. 

What you’ll do:

• Research, design, and implement state-of-the-art planning and control algorithms, taking ideas from conception to field deployment
• Optimize the planning and controls stack on the CPU and GPU 
• Develop core systems that must be portable and scalable across different UAS platforms and compute architectures 
• Work with our Hivemind Design Software team to design and build infrastructure for the PAC team that both supports local development and scales into the cloud 
• Work with soft or hard real-time operating systems 
• Work with robotics middleware such as ROS and PX4 
• Work on algorithms, including graph search, sampling-based planning, etc. 
• Work with and deploy our AI stack to edge devices 
• Work in collaboration with our DevOps teams to architect and maintain our cloud infrastructure, working with containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes; assist with cross-platform builds and test orchestration, working with build tools (e.g. CMake, Bazel, etc.) and compiler tool chains (e.g. gcc, llvm, etc.) 

Projects that you might work on:

• Design and implement: an Executive Manager for single agents and heterogenous teams; a portable world graph that enables rapid global planning across different platforms 
• Port PAC libraries, where applicable, to CUDA kernels 
• Port PAC libraries to EdgeOS, a Shield AI Middleware framework, that enables portability of PAC libraries to multiple platforms and compute architectures 
• Design and implement an analysis and simulation framework that: enables testing of various components in isolation or in a fully integrated manner; supports parameter sweeps; supports hardware-in-the-loop 

Required qualifications:

• BS in computer science or related engineering field with 2+ years of professional experience 
• Experience with C++ 11, 14, or 17 in a production environment (e.g. support for both internal and external customers) 
• Experience with common debugging and profiling tools (e.g. gdb, valgrind, etc.) 
• Experience in a collaborative development environment, focused on continuous integration/delivery & test-driven development 
• Strong knowledge of modern software engineering best practices 
• Demonstrated record of working hard, strong communication skills, being a trustworthy teammate, and being kind to others 
• Familiarity with writing thread-safe multi-threaded programs 
• Familiarity with git, bash, Python 

#LI-OE1

Salary Range: $109,000 -197,000 Annually + Bonus + Benefits + Equity (if applicable)

Actual 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. Information on the benefits offered is here.

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. 

To conform to U.S. Government regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.