The Mission Systems Software Engineer will work on developing solutions of a real time system environment to provide mission computing support at the center of an autonomous aircraft with sensor and weapons. This role will work to establish a software architecture for a real time system that operates in a multi-level environment at real time. The role will require work with hardware, software and systems teams to come to a consensus design. This role will focus on development of new systems and software designs from PDR, CoDR, CDR to lab test, flight test and fielding.
What you'll do:
- Serve as a software mission systems engineer for a safety- and mission-critical real-time mission-computing system aligned with A-GRA and AMS-GRA principles, profiles, interfaces, and data standards.
- Define and maintain the end-to-end software architecture, including mission applications, platform services, middleware, operating-system interfaces, hardware-abstraction layers, networking, data distribution, component boundaries, and APIs.
- Architect for deterministic real-time performance by addressing scheduling, latency, jitter, synchronization, throughput, resource utilization, distributed processing, and CPU/GPU/accelerator allocation.
- Develop architecture views, interface definitions, data-flow and deployment models, sequence and timing diagrams, resource budgets, trade studies, and technical decision records.
- Integrate sensors, effectors, communications, navigation, autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, data-processing, and vehicle services in collaboration with hardware, FPGA, cybersecurity, safety, systems, integration, and test teams.
- Design for mission resilience and assurance through fault detection and isolation, redundancy, graceful degradation, recovery, health monitoring, cybersecurity, airworthiness, certification, and requirements traceability.
- Establish engineering practices for concurrency, synchronization, memory and resource management, deterministic execution, interface control, configuration management, and predictable component integration.
- Define and execute verification strategies across HIL/SIL laboratories, simulations, test benches, flight-test environments, and deployed systems using automated, performance, stress, fault-injection, interface, and timing tests.
- Maintain technical ownership throughout the system lifecycle by evaluating enabling technologies and supplier designs, analyzing performance, managing technical debt and modernization roadmaps, promoting reuse, and communicating architectural decisions.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 8+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 3+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership.
- Experience developing embedded, distributed, real-time, safety-critical, or mission-critical software systems.
- Proficiency in C, C++, Rust, or another strongly typed systems-programming language.
- Strong understanding of real-time software principles, including scheduling, concurrency, synchronization, latency, jitter, memory management, and deterministic execution.
- Experience with embedded operating systems or RTOSs, middleware, interprocess communication, networking, and data-distribution technologies.
- Experience defining software architectures, APIs, interface-control documents, data flows, deployment models, and system resource budgets.
- Experience integrating software with hardware, sensors, communications systems, navigation systems, effectors, or other mission-system components.
- Experience supporting software through requirements development, design reviews, implementation, integration, verification, system test, and deployment.
- Working knowledge of systems-engineering processes, requirements management, traceability, configuration management, and verification and validation.
- Ability to analyze system performance using instrumentation, telemetry, traces, profiling, network captures, timing data, and resource-utilization measurements.
- Strong cross-functional technical leadership, problem-solving, written communication, and presentation skills.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance; U.S. citizenship may be required for clearance eligibility.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience developing software for autonomous aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, avionics, mission computers, robotics, or aerospace and defense platforms.
- Experience with A-GRA, AMS-GRA, OMS, UCI, FACE, or other government reference architectures and open-mission-system standards.
- Experience integrating autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, sensor processing, communications, navigation, and effector capabilities.
- Familiarity with airworthiness, safety-assurance, or certification standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or applicable military airworthiness guidance.
- Experience with CPU-, GPU-, FPGA-, or accelerator-based heterogeneous computing architectures.
- Experience with publish/subscribe middleware, quality-of-service controls, high-rate data distribution, precision timing, and distributed time synchronization.
- Experience designing cybersecurity controls for embedded or mission systems, including trust boundaries, least privilege, authentication, authorization, secure communications, and software integrity.
- Experience with HIL/SIL environments, simulation systems, laboratory integration, flight testing, or operational deployment.
- Experience evaluating supplier designs, RTOSs, middleware, computing platforms, or third-party software for architectural compliance and integration readiness.
- Active or previously held U.S. Department of Defense Secret clearance.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field
- 8+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 3+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership
- Experience developing embedded, distributed, real-time, safety-critical, or mission-critical software systems
- Proficiency in C, C++, Rust, or another strongly typed systems-programming language
- Strong understanding of scheduling, concurrency, synchronization, latency, jitter, memory management, and deterministic execution
- Experience with embedded operating systems or RTOSs, middleware, interprocess communication, networking, and data-distribution technologies
- Experience defining software architectures, APIs, interface-control documents, data flows, deployment models, and system resource budgets
- Experience integrating software with hardware, sensors, communications, navigation systems, effectors, or other mission-system components
- Experience supporting software through requirements development, design reviews, implementation, integration, verification, system test, and deployment
- Working knowledge of systems-engineering processes, requirements management, traceability, configuration management, and verification and validation
- Ability to analyze system performance using instrumentation, telemetry, traces, profiling, network captures, timing data, and resource-utilization measurements
- Strong cross-functional technical leadership, problem-solving, written communication, and presentation skills
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance; U.S. citizenship may be required for clearance eligibility
- Experience developing software for autonomous aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, avionics, mission computers, robotics, or aerospace and defense platforms
- Experience with A-GRA, AMS-GRA, OMS, UCI, FACE, or other government reference architectures and open-mission-system standards
- Experience integrating autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, sensor processing, communications, navigation, and effector capabilities
- Familiarity with DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or applicable military airworthiness guidance
- Experience with CPU-, GPU-, FPGA-, or accelerator-based heterogeneous computing architectures
- Experience with publish/subscribe middleware, quality-of-service controls, high-rate data distribution, precision timing, and distributed time synchronization
- Experience designing cybersecurity controls for embedded or mission systems
- Experience with HIL/SIL environments, simulation systems, laboratory integration, flight testing, or operational deployment
- Experience evaluating supplier designs, RTOSs, middleware, computing platforms, or third-party software for architectural compliance and integration readiness
- Active or previously held U.S. Department of Defense Secret clearance
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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