Are you a passionate and innovative engineer looking to help develop state-of-the-art AI and robotics 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 Hivemind Integration & Test team is committed to ensuring our autonomy platform delivers a seamless developer experience and enables customers to build world-class autonomous systems. We focus on integrating, validating, and continuously improving the Hivemind ecosystem—spanning autonomy behaviors, sensor processing, multi-agent coordination, ground-control systems, and embedded platforms. Our mission is to ensure that autonomy developers can efficiently build, test, and deploy autonomous applications that meet real-world mission objectives.
In this role, you will lead a team responsible for integrating, validating, and scaling the Hivemind autonomy platform across simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and operational environments. You will serve as both a technical leader and people manager—guiding engineers in the development of robust integration and test capabilities while remaining actively engaged in hands-on system integration, validation, and customer-focused workflows.
As a power user of the Hivemind SDK, you will develop a deep understanding of its capabilities, identify gaps from a customer perspective, and drive improvements across the platform. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Program teams to integrate new autonomy capabilities, evaluate feature completeness, and ensure customers can efficiently build, test, and deploy mission-ready autonomous systems. This position bridges technical leadership, engineering execution, and real-world autonomy applications—ensuring our platform empowers customers to build reliable, world-class autonomous systems.
What you'll do:
- Mentor, and develop a team of engineers focused on software integration, system validation, and developer experience.
- Establish team priorities, drive execution, and foster a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Actively contribute to system integration, validation, and debugging activities and develop deep expertise in our autonomy stack.
- Guide the architecture and implementation of integration frameworks, deployment workflows, and configuration management tools that streamline validation across Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and flight environments.
- Review system logs, telemetry, and rosbag data to diagnose integration defects
- Lead cross-functional investigations, establish corrective actions, and create tooling that accelerates debugging and issue resolution.
- Ensure integrated capabilities meet product requirements and interface specifications.
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree in CS, Comp Eng, Robotics, or a related field; or 6 years and a master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD.
- Proficiency in programming languages including Python or C++.
- Experience with autonomous systems or middleware.
- Demonstrated experience designing integration workflows, communicating system dependencies, and triaging and reporting integration defects across subsystem boundaries.
- Strong problem-solving skills and a proven track record of delivering high-quality software solutions.
- Excellent communication skills, capable of collaborating effectively across various teams and presenting to customers or technical leadership.
- Experience leading software integration engineers and owning integration roadmaps and release schedules
Preferred qualifications:
- Demonstrated experience building complex systems with a strong understanding of software architecture and design principles.
- Experience with hardware or embedded systems.
- Expert knowledge of Python.
- Experience with ROS.
- Experience with white box testing
- Familiarity with networking, operating-systems, and radio communications.
- Experience supporting customer applications
Skills Required
- Minimum 7 years related experience with a BS (6 years with MS; 4 years with PhD)
- Proficiency in programming languages including Python or C++
- Experience with autonomous systems or middleware
- Experience designing integration workflows and triaging integration defects across subsystem boundaries
- Strong problem-solving skills and proven track record delivering high-quality software
- Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams and present to customers or technical leadership
- Experience leading software integration engineers and owning integration roadmaps and release schedules
- Experience building complex systems with strong software architecture and design principles
- Experience with hardware or embedded systems
- Expert knowledge of Python
- Experience with ROS
- Experience with white box testing
- Familiarity with networking, operating systems, and radio communications
- Experience supporting customer applications
What the Team is Saying
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
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.
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
