Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to help design, develop, and integrate a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for a suite of core products and capabilities that brings resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments. The RTA product that the Foundations team develops is a real-time safety capability that helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge.
As a member of the Foundations team, you will be responsible for C++ software development, integration of reusable safety capabilities into production systems, defining clean interfaces and tests, and turn safety-critical designs into reliable software that can fly, including support for X-BAT, Shield AI's flagship Group 5 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) UAV.
What you'll do:
- Develop, integrate, and test configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) components that monitor autonomy behavior and support safe operation across representative platforms and scenarios.
- Adapt reusable C++ safety capabilities into production runtime components, including interface integration, configuration wiring, and unit, component, and integration tests.
- Implement real-time C++ code at the boundary between mission autonomy, high-assurance middleware, and flight-control interfaces.
- Integrate safety-critical software with aircraft hardware for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and flight-test campaigns, scaling from single-aircraft test points to multi-agent collaborative CONOPS.
- Strengthen engineering evidence through CI, static and dynamic analysis, focused code reviews, software documentation, software designs, ICDs, system models, test results, and traceability artifacts.
- Share safe software practices through code reviews, design discussions, and clear technical write-ups.
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 4 years with a Master’s degree; or 2 year with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Strong C++ development experience, including modern C++, testing, debugging, and performance-aware design.
- Experience building software for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or similarly constrained systems.
- Experience integrating software with hardware, simulation, Hardware in the Loop (HIL), or production-like test environments and diagnosing reliability or performance issues.
- Familiarity with C++ software design patterns and the ability to work effectively within an existing architecture.
- Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices such as CI/CD and test-focused development.
- Ability to write clear technical documentation and collaborate across software, systems, test, and platform teams.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with autonomy middleware, interface definitions, Python-based configuration tooling, CMake, Conan, or reusable C++ library integration.
- Familiarity with high-reliability or safety-critical development practices, such as static analysis, coding standards, traceability, and requirements-based testing.
- Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards such as MISRA C++ or JSF AV C++.
- Hands-on experience with airworthiness or software assurance frameworks such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C, or equivalent safety standards.
- Experience taking a software component through verification, qualification, or certification evidence review.
Skills Required
- At least 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree, 4 years with a Master's degree, 2 years with a PhD, or equivalent experience
- Strong C++ development experience, including modern C++, testing, debugging, and performance-aware design
- Experience building software for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or similarly constrained systems
- Experience integrating software with hardware, simulation, Hardware in the Loop, or production-like test environments
- Experience diagnosing reliability or performance issues
- Familiarity with C++ software design patterns and existing software architectures
- Strong Git and Linux development skills
- Experience with CI/CD and test-focused development practices
- Ability to write clear technical documentation and collaborate across software, systems, test, and platform teams
- Experience with autonomy middleware, interface definitions, Python-based configuration tooling, CMake, Conan, or reusable C++ library integration
- Familiarity with high-reliability or safety-critical development practices, including static analysis, coding standards, traceability, and requirements-based testing
- Experience with MISRA C++ or JSF AV C++ coding standards
- Experience with airworthiness or software assurance frameworks such as MIL-HDBK-516 or DO-178C
- Experience taking software components through verification, qualification, or certification evidence review
What the Team is Saying
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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Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
