What You'll Do:
- Multidisciplinary Team Leadership: Lead teams across autonomy, integration, and testing by aligning technical efforts, resolving cross-functional challenges, and driving mission-focused execution. Balance hands-on technical oversight with performance optimization, innovation, and clear stakeholder communication.
- Autonomy Development: As an Autonomy Engineer on this team, you will lead teams at the intersection of artificial intelligence, task & motion planning, and controls. Write autonomous behaviors for varying aircraft platforms (i.e., VTOL and Fixed Wing)
- Collaboration: You will work closely with talented engineers to architect solutions, set standards for software engineering, drive strategic technical improvements, and mentor other engineers. Work with Subject Matter Experts to understand customer needs and implement appropriate autonomy solutions
- System Integration: Integrate Shield AI autonomy products together with third party systems
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related field (Master’s preferred).
- 10+ years of experience developing and integrating autonomy algorithms in robotics, aerospace, or defense systems.
- 2+ years managing technical teams.
- Proficiency in programming languages such as C++ and Python, and familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS).
- Significant background in robotics technologies related to sensing, estimation, path planning, and data fusion.
- Significant experience with unmanned system technologies and accompanying algorithms (specifically air domain)
- Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for testing and validation.
- Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and optimize system performance.
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment.
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Mathematical background in both linear/nonlinear control theory and autonomous systems technologies/algorithms
- Demonstrated problem solving skills by applying a scientific approach
- Ability to understand, derive, and implement motion models and accompanying controllers for trajectory generation and tracking.
- Experience with UCI and OMS Standards
- Active SECRET clearance
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related field
- Master’s degree in a related field
- 10+ years developing and integrating autonomy algorithms in robotics, aerospace, or defense systems
- 2+ years managing technical teams
- Proficiency in C++ and Python
- Familiarity with real-time operating systems
- Significant experience with sensing, estimation, path planning, and data fusion
- Significant experience with unmanned systems and air-domain algorithms
- Experience with simulation tools such as AFSIM or NGTS
- Strong problem-solving and system-performance troubleshooting skills
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills
- Ability to obtain a SECRET security clearance
- Background in linear and nonlinear control theory and autonomous systems algorithms
- Ability to derive and implement motion models and controllers for trajectory generation and tracking
- Experience with UCI and OMS Standards
- Active SECRET security clearance
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as excellent, with dental/vision and mental‑health support, and ancillary protections like life and disability appearing in benefit summaries. The breadth and perceived affordability of coverage are highlighted as a standout component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is featured alongside enhanced maternity benefits, fertility and childcare support, and onsite resources such as a Mother’s Room. These elements are positioned as competitive and above the minimal baseline for the company’s stage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full‑time hires, with RSUs, double‑trigger tax timing, and tools to model scenarios (e.g., through Carta Tax). Communications also reference a transition from options to RSUs, reinforcing access and maturity of ownership programs.
Shield AI Insights
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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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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
