You should apply if:
- You’re excited about a role involving travel and enjoy being on-site with customers, including international and multi-week engagements.
- You’re a strong technical contributor who takes initiative and figures things out.
- You enjoy problem-solving, building relationships, and working at the intersection of engineering and real-world deployment.
- You’re passionate about autonomy, robotics, and applying these technologies to maritime operations.
You should not apply if:
- You prefer minimal travel or want to work primarily from a single location.
- You want to do 100% R&D and don’t enjoy customer interactions.
- You’ve never programmed in C, C++, or Rust.
What you'll do:
- Deploy with customers on-site globally (up to 50% travel) to support software integration, development, and on-water testing.
- Become an expert user of the Hivemind enterprise software stack and its various autonomy modules.
- Provide technical support and training to customers.
- Develop AI and autonomy applications using the Shield AI enterprise software development kit, with a focus on maritime missions and platforms.
- Assist the sales team in pre-sales activities, including demonstrations, conferences, and immersions.
- Assist in post-sales deployment and integration of Shield AI enterprise software products with maritime platform controls, sensors, navigation systems, and communications.
- Develop and maintain technical documentation and training materials.
- Help customers debug software and API integration issues.
- Collaborate with the product engineering team to address customer feedback and improve products.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field.
- 5+ years of industry experience.
- 2+ years of experience in an integration or applications engineering role.
- 2+ years of experience working in a startup environment.
- Strong technical background in software engineering.
- Strong proficiency in modern C++.
- Intermediate proficiency in Python.
- Experience developing or integrating software for maritime platforms, marine robotics, or autonomous vessel systems.
- Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience in the defense maritime or marine robotics industry.
- Familiarity with maritime navigation, vessel control, collision avoidance, or maritime sensors such as radar, AIS, and sonar.
- Experience supporting autonomous vessel demonstrations or sea trials.
- Experience building and running a small enterprise software applications or solutions engineering team.
- Advanced technical degree, especially in robotics or autonomy-related fields.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field
- 5+ years of industry experience
- 2+ years of experience in an integration or applications engineering role
- 2+ years of experience working in a startup environment
- Strong technical background in software engineering
- Strong proficiency in modern C++
- Intermediate proficiency in Python
- Experience developing or integrating software for maritime platforms, marine robotics, or autonomous vessel systems
- Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
- Experience in the defense maritime or marine robotics industry
- Familiarity with maritime navigation, vessel control, collision avoidance, radar, AIS, and sonar
- Experience supporting autonomous vessel demonstrations or sea trials
- Experience building and running a small enterprise software applications or solutions engineering team
- Advanced technical degree, especially in robotics or autonomy-related fields
What the Team is Saying
What We Do
At Shield 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 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 Teams
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Shield Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
