Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind Enterprise—EdgeOS, Pilot, Commander, and Forge—as well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.
As a Hivemind on X Aerospace Software Quality Assurance Engineer, you will be at the epicenter of integration and testing for deploying our Hivemind Software and AI Pilot on 3rd Party Platforms. You will be ensuring our software meets high quality benchmarks, while planning and executing the integration and testing of SW and HW systems throughout the Software Development Life Cycle, preparing them for simulation demonstrations and on-ground and in-flight test campaigns. Our test campaigns are hands-on and fast paced, with lots of planning, documentation, communication, coordination, manual testing, scripted testing, test reviews, debugging, and system verification. Your efforts will be rewarded with successful flight test events, leadership growth opportunities at a fast-paced scaling tech company and your contributions will play a key role in developing an AI autopilot, enabling intelligent aircraft, historic aviation firsts and fulfilling our mission to protect service members and civilians the world over!
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
- Ensure Shield AI Hivemind on X software meets high quality benchmarks, requirements, and industry standards before release.
- Improve software development processes to minimize defects and accelerate the development cycle.
- Create, maintain and present test documentation, including test plans, test results and post flight-test analysis reports.
- Work with cross-functional teams to test and integrate software and hardware systems preparing for flight simulation and real flight test milestones.
- Run and review tests at a regular cadence to validate software stability, triage issues, report bugs, identify and mitigate flight readiness risks.
- Support on-site at test ranges during flight test campaigns that includes system configuration, running Hivemind on X software, and flight data post-analysis.
- Create test team reporting methods (such as dashboards) to provide high-level results visibility, metrics, performance and quality trends. Write Python scripts to test Hivemind on X software and hardware systems (with software emphasis).
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Typically requires a minimum of 1-2 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; or 0 years and a Master’s degree; or 0 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Proficiency in Python and Bash scripting.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with cross-functional software, hardware and mechanical engineering teams.
- Strong technical writing skills.
- Experience in robotics, aerospace, and/or related hands-on engineering projects.
- Experience in test engineering, or similar test generation, test planning, test execution and/or related systems engineering experience.
- Strong planning, analytical, problem-solving, and debugging skills.
- Passionate about intelligent aircraft systems.
- Adaptability and a willingness to learn new technologies and methodologies quickly in a fast-paced environment.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Software Quality Assurance experience.
- Experience in the aerospace or defense industries, working with complex systems and adhering to stringent standards and regulations.
- Running software test or flight test campaigns experience.
- Software management tools (Git, AzureDevOps/Jira, Artifactory).
- Writing, maintaining and delivering complex technical documentation. Experience championing, testing and executing, a capability or project throughout the Software Development Life Cycle to delivery.
#LI- EW1
#LB
Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
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. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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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.
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage includes medical, dental, vision, and mental-health support, with company materials describing excellent coverage. Feedback suggests these offerings are comprehensive and consistently highlighted across official and third-party benefit lists.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full-time hires, with RSU structures and tools like Carta Tax intended to improve understanding and tax timing. Feedback suggests this broad-based ownership approach is a notable component of total rewards.
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Parental & Family Support — Benefits include paid parental leave, fertility support, childcare benefits, family medical leave, and onsite resources such as a Mother's Room. Feedback suggests the family-oriented offerings are more expansive than basic coverage.
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What We Do
At Shield AI, you won't wait years to see your work reach the field. You'll build hardware and software that operates in the real world right now, in the hands of the people who depend on it. Hivemind, our AI pilot, has been flying since 2018. It has flown more than 30 platforms, including an F-16, and it now sits under a U.S. Air Force production contract for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. When you write code or shape a system here, you contribute to technology with a proven flight record and a clear production future. V-BAT flies intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions with an operational record that stretches from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific. It delivers eyes where they matter most, in the most demanding conditions on earth. The teams behind it watch their work get tested where the stakes are real. X-BAT takes its first flight this year. It's an AI-piloted fighter that needs no runway, built to operate where traditional aircraft can't. Join now and you help shape a program at its earliest, most formative stage. That's the kind of ground-floor work that defines a career. Do the most impactful work of your life, on problems that matter. Autonomy at this level asks a lot of you. You'll take on problems in perception, planning, and control that few teams anywhere are equipped to solve. You'll work across disciplines, from aerospace and robotics to machine learning and systems engineering, alongside people who hold themselves to an exacting standard and expect the same from you. Our mission is clear: protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. That purpose runs through every decision, every design review, and every deployment. It's why the work here carries a weight you can feel. Ready to join our mission? Explore our open roles and find where you fit.
Why Work With Us
Founded in 2015 by a former Navy SEAL, Shield AI builds AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft. Veterans aren't an afterthought here, they're at every level. It's why the work carries weight: AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft flying real missions, from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, protecting service members and civilians.
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