The Autonomy Capabilities team develops the core functionality used to drive autonomous decision making for single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives. The team serves as a central technical discipline within Shield AI, driving consistent approaches across business portfolios while operating at every level of the command-and-control hierarchy, from advanced control laws and motion planning to tactical behaviors and multi-agent coordination. Our work spans a wide range of mission sets, platform types, and operational domains, including air, sea, and space.
The team combines strong technical fundamentals, including vehicle kinematics and dynamics, trajectory design, optimization, information fusion, and efficient algorithms, with the software engineering and integration rigor required to field these capabilities on real-world systems. We build autonomy that operates reliably within complex integration environments and delivers differentiated mission capabilities to U.S. and international defense customers.
Your team will build autonomy solutions for small, often air- or ground-launched platforms that operate individually or as part of collaborative multi-agent fleets, frequently in disconnected or air-gapped environments. The capabilities your team develops will span motion planning, tactical behaviors, track fusion, weapons-target assignment, and perception-aware decision-making.
You will own the team’s technical delivery, organizational health, and growth. A core part of the role is building and developing the team by hiring strong engineers, mentoring them through complex technical challenges, and creating opportunities for continued growth. You will remain technically engaged, helping define system architecture, guiding key design decisions, contributing directly where it best serves the team, and ensuring solutions are delivered from rapid prototyping through software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and live test exercises. Success in this role requires a leader who can balance technical depth with people leadership, navigate ambiguity across multiple programs, and translate evolving customer needs into autonomy capabilities that can be integrated, validated, and fielded.
What You'll Do:
Lead and Grow the Team – Manage a team of autonomy engineers, typically 5–10 people. Own performance, growth, leveling, engagement, and delivery while providing regular coaching, feedback, and technical mentorship.
Build the Team – Identify the skills needed within your area, partner closely with recruiting, conduct interviews, maintain a high hiring bar, and help close and onboard strong candidates.
Own Technical Delivery – Lead autonomy capabilities from initial design through integration, validation, and field deployment. Translate program objectives into clear technical priorities, execution plans, and ownership across the team.
Set Technical Direction – Define technical approaches and architectures for mission autonomy, balancing reuse of existing Shield AI capabilities with new development required for specific platforms and missions.
Develop Tactical Autonomy – Guide the development of motion planning, tactical behaviors, multi-agent coordination, track fusion, perception-aware decision-making, and weapons- or sensor-target assignment for platforms operating in complex and communications-constrained environments.
Remain Technically Engaged – Stay close to the code and contribute directly where it provides the most value, including prototyping capabilities, reviewing critical designs, investigating difficult problems, and supporting key delivery milestones. This is a manager role, not a managing-only role.
Drive Engineering and Integration Rigor – Ensure the team develops high-performance, well-tested software with clear interfaces and the reliability required for operational deployment. Lead design reviews and strengthen development, testing, and integration practices.
Navigate Ambiguity and Changing Priorities – Make sound technical, staffing, and sequencing decisions when requirements are incomplete or program priorities shift. Communicate changes clearly and protect the team’s ability to execute.
Partner Across Teams and With Customers – Collaborate with Perception, Platform Integration, Simulation, Hardware, Flight Test, and Program teams, as well as U.S. and international defense customers, to shape requirements, resolve technical tradeoffs, and successfully integrate autonomy onto real-world platforms.
Lead Testing and Continuous Improvement – Own validation across software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and live test environments. Use mission data and test results to diagnose failures, improve capabilities, and inform the team’s technical roadmap.
Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel approximately 10–15% of the year to other Shield AI offices, customer sites, integration events, flight tests, and demonstrations.
Required Qualifications:
BS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field with a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience; or 5 years with a master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent practical experience.
Experience leading and developing engineers as a people manager, team lead, feature lead, or similar technical leadership role, including mentoring, providing feedback, and coordinating team delivery.
Track record of leading a technical team or major capability from initial design through integration, validation, and field delivery.
Significant experience with robotics or autonomous systems, including areas such as motion planning, tactical behaviors, decision-making, controls, or multi-agent coordination.
Strong proficiency in C++, with experience developing production-quality software for real-time, robotics, or autonomy systems.
Experience with unmanned systems, autonomy simulation environments, and software- or hardware-in-the-loop testing.
Strong systems-level problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. SECRET security clearance.
Preferred Qualifications:
Direct people-management experience, including responsibility for performance management, hiring, feedback, and employee development.
Experience developing tactical autonomy for weapons, strike, collaborative combat aircraft, launched effects, or related defense applications.
Experience with multi-agent coordination, distributed decision-making, trajectory optimization, track fusion, or weapons- and sensor-target assignment.
Hands-on experience integrating autonomy onto unmanned platforms and supporting flight tests, demonstrations, or field exercises.
Experience developing capabilities for disconnected, communications-denied, or air-gapped environments.
Experience authoring interface-control documents or working with UCI, OMS, or similar defense interoperability standards.
Experience partnering directly with DoD or international defense customers.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field, plus 7 years of relevant experience; alternatively, 5 years with a master's degree, 4 years with a PhD, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience leading and developing engineers as a people manager, team lead, feature lead, or similar technical leadership role.
- Track record of leading a technical team or major capability from initial design through integration, validation, and field delivery.
- Significant experience with robotics or autonomous systems, including motion planning, tactical behaviors, decision-making, controls, or multi-agent coordination.
- Strong proficiency in C++ and experience developing production-quality software for real-time, robotics, or autonomy systems.
- Experience with unmanned systems, autonomy simulation environments, and software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testing.
- Strong systems-level problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.
- Direct people-management experience involving performance management, hiring, feedback, and employee development.
- Experience developing tactical autonomy for weapons, strike, collaborative combat aircraft, launched effects, or related defense applications.
- Experience with multi-agent coordination, distributed decision-making, trajectory optimization, track fusion, or weapons- and sensor-target assignment.
- Hands-on experience integrating autonomy onto unmanned platforms and supporting flight tests, demonstrations, or field exercises.
- Experience developing capabilities for disconnected, communications-denied, or air-gapped environments.
- Experience authoring interface-control documents or working with UCI, OMS, or similar defense interoperability standards.
- Experience partnering directly with Department of Defense or international defense customers.
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
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.
