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 Quality team is committed to ensuring our autonomy platform delivers reliable, mission-ready capabilities through rigorous integration, validation, and flight testing. We work closely with autonomy, platform, and hardware teams to validate new features in simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and real-world flight environments, ensuring our customers can confidently deploy autonomous systems in demanding operational conditions.
We are seeking an experienced Senior Flight Test Engineer passionate about autonomy development and system validation. In this role, you will develop and execute comprehensive flight test strategies that validate autonomous behaviors, software integrations, and end-to-end system performance. You will work closely with software, hardware, and product teams to reproduce real-world mission scenarios, identify product issues, and improve the quality and reliability of the Hivemind platform. You are responsible for determining test readiness, directing test conduct, managing risk, and ensuring data-driven decisions throughout development and flight test operations.
What you'll do:
Lead system-level integration and flight test campaigns for Hivemind Mission Autonomy across small UAS and external platforms.
Develop and execute test strategies, plans, scenarios, and success criteria that validate autonomy capabilities, software integrations, system performance, and operational customer workflows.
Own test readiness and phase-gate decisions across simulation, SIL, HIL, ground, and flight testing, including entry and exit criteria, configuration control, and objective prioritization.
Plan, direct, and execute fly–fix–fly campaigns, coordinating cross-functional engineering teams and test operators to enable rapid, disciplined iteration.
Approve test procedures, test cards, and execution plans; lead risk assessments, hazard analyses, and mitigation planning while serving as the final authority during test conduct.
Define and maintain test infrastructure, including simulation environments, flight assets, hardware configurations, multi-agent systems, and automated test pipelines.
Analyze flight logs, telemetry, rosbags, and system data to identify defects, determine root causes, document anomalies and corrective actions, and ensure results are traceable to requirements and mission outcomes.
Serve as the primary test interface to leadership, customers, and external stakeholders while establishing SOPs, reporting test progress and risk, and advancing industry test practices.
Required qualifications:
Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 4 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience.
Experience in system integration and test, including SIL, HIL, simulation, and flight test environments
Highly organized and methodical, with the ability to manage complex, fast-paced test campaigns
Strong written and verbal communication skills for safety-of-flight processes, hazard analysis, and configuration control in flight test environments
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to analyze flight logs, telemetry, and system behavior to identify root causes.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate across software, hardware, product, and test organizations.
FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate (or the ability to obtain one within a reasonable timeframe).
Preferred qualifications:
Familiarity with networking, Linux operating systems, and radio communications.
Experience with hardware design selection and 3D prototyping
Experience with modern software interfaces such as Codex and GitLab
Experience with open-source flight controller software and sensor integration
Experience with debugging autonomy subsystems through ROS logs
Experience developing automated test tooling, validation frameworks, or data analysis tools in CI/CD pipelines
Skills Required
- Minimum 5 years related experience with Bachelor's degree (or equivalent experience)
- Proficiency in software quality engineering, test automation, and programming with Python
- Proficiency in C++
- Experience planning and executing field or flight testing for robotics, autonomous systems, or complex software platforms
- Experience developing automated test tooling, validation frameworks, or data analysis tools
- Experience designing, documenting, executing, and tracking test plans, test cases, and software defects
- Ability to analyze flight logs, telemetry, rosbags, and system behavior to identify root causes
- Excellent communication and collaboration across software, hardware, product, and test teams
- FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate (or ability to obtain one within a reasonable timeframe)
- Experience using GenAI tools to improve engineering productivity or software quality
- Experience with C++14/C++17, TypeScript, JSON, and modern software development practices
- Experience with ROS
- Proficiency with simulation tools and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing environments
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines
- Familiarity with networking, Linux operating systems, and radio communications
- Experience testing autonomous aerial systems or other robotic platforms
- Experience analyzing flight telemetry, sensor data, and autonomy behaviors
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.
