What you'll do:
- Work with tech leads and stockholders to design, track, and report simulation roadmaps and release plans.
- Align needs and priorities across many teams and disciplines
- Hire and manage a team of specialized simulation engineers across multiple locations.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including software engineers, autonomy engineers, and aerodynamics engineers, to ensure the simulation accurately reflects real-world conditions
- Create and maintain processes and workflows to build confidence in simulation tooling to both internal and external customers.
- Stay updated with the latest advancements in simulation technologies and drive best practices across the team
- Build and maintain documentation and dashboards to quickly provide data and status to leadership.
Required qualifications:
- BS in Computer Science or related engineering field with 8+ years of professional experience.
- 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams or projects.
- Passion for simulation and testing with the goal of ensuring safety and reliability at scale.
- A proven track record of working with multiple stakeholder groups and managing clear and successful roadmaps
- Strong foundation in C++ and software architecture
- Foundational knowledge of statistics and its application in software development, testing, and data analysis.
- Solid understanding of mathematics (especially linear algebra) and foundational physics, with the ability to interpret technical papers and algorithms effectively.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and/or containerized application development
- Familiarity with rigid body dynamics (e.g. Euler’s equations, quaternions), aerodynamics, propulsion systems, etc.
- Experience with Python 3 and data science frameworks (e.g. NumPy, Pandas, Dagster)
- Experience with robotics concepts, including node-based architectures such as ROS or similar middleware frameworks.
Skills Required
- BS in Computer Science or related engineering field with 8+ years of professional experience
- 3+ years of experience leading engineering teams or projects
- Passion for simulation and testing focused on safety and reliability at scale
- Proven track record working with multiple stakeholder groups and managing roadmaps
- Strong foundation in C++ and software architecture
- Foundational knowledge of statistics applied to software development, testing, and data analysis
- Solid understanding of mathematics (especially linear algebra) and foundational physics
- Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and/or containerized application development
- Familiarity with rigid body dynamics, aerodynamics, and propulsion systems
- Experience with Python 3 and data science frameworks (NumPy, Pandas, Dagster)
- Experience with robotics concepts and node-based architectures such as ROS or similar middleware
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.
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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Shield AI Teams
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
