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 Engineer, Flight Test 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 will also develop tooling that accelerates testing and analysis while mentoring engineers and helping establish best practices across the organization. This position bridges software quality, systems integration, and flight operations—ensuring our autonomy platform delivers reliable, mission-ready autonomous capabilities.
What you'll do:
- Develop and execute flight test plans that validate new autonomy capabilities, software integrations, and system performance in real-world flight environments.
- Design and execute test scenarios that reproduce operational customer workflows and mission conditions to identify software defects, integration issues, and performance limitations.
- Build analysis tools and validation workflows that improve test coverage, accelerate regression testing, and reduce time to identify issues.
- Review flight logs, telemetry, rosbags, and system data to triage issues, perform root-cause analysis, and collaborate with engineering teams to drive resolution.
- Work closely with middleware, autonomy, and integration teams to develop complementary test strategies, share tooling, and improve overall product quality.
- Provide technical guidance to junior engineers, establish testing standards, and help improve engineering processes across the organization.
- Maintain standard operating procedures, participate in flight operations, and contribute to the continuous improvement of testing processes and operational readiness.
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.
- Proficiency in software quality engineering, test automation, and programming with Python and 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.
- Demonstrated experience designing, documenting, executing, and tracking test plans, test cases, and software defects.
- 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:
- 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.
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 — 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
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.
