What you'll do:
- Become a systems integration expert for autonomous robotics: Develop deep expertise in our AI-powered autonomy stack.
- Learn to configure, deploy, and integrate multi-agent systems across simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and flight platforms.
- Understand the full system end-to-end—from sensor inputs to autonomous behaviors.
- Integrate new capabilities into the autonomy stack: Collaborate cross-functionally with development teams to bring autonomy algorithms, perception pipelines, middleware, and platform interfaces into the integrated product. Ensure seamless interoperability between components.
- Enable platform bring-up and validation: Lead the integration of autonomy software onto new robotic hardware platforms.
- Configure sensor drivers, communication interfaces, and platform adapters to enable full autonomy stack functionality on prototype and production vehicles.
- Develop integration tooling & infrastructure: Architect and implement integration frameworks, deployment scripts, and configuration management tools that streamline bringing new capabilities into Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and flight environments.
- Support cross-platform compatibility: Work with other integration engineers to ensure the autonomy stack operates reliably across all supported platforms, operating systems, and deployment configurations. Identify and resolve integration issues across system boundaries.
- Analyze system behavior and root-cause issues: Evaluate system logs, telemetry, and rosbag data to diagnose integration defects. Collaborate with developers to isolate issues to specific subsystems and drive resolution. Create analysis tooling to accelerate debugging.
- Optimize integration workflows and CI/CD: Partner with DevOps teams to streamline integration pipelines, reduce build-to-deploy cycle times, and ensure robust continuous integration of new features. Define integration checkpoints and criteria for release readiness.
- Validate system requirements and interface contracts: Work with engineers to ensure integrated capabilities meet product requirements and interface specifications. Assist in developing tooling to verify end-to-end system compliance and traceability.
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree in CS, Comp Eng, Robotics, or a related field; or 6 years and a master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD.
- Proficiency in programming languages including Python or C++.
- Experience with autonomous systems or server applications or middleware.
- Demonstrated experience designing integration workflows, communicating system dependencies, and triaging and reporting integration defects across subsystem boundaries.
- Proficiency with simulation tools and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing environments.
- Strong expertise with CI/CD pipelines.
- Strong problem-solving skills and a proven track record of delivering high-quality software solutions.
- Excellent communication skills, capable of collaborating effectively across various teams and presenting to customers or technical leadership.
Preferred qualifications:
- Demonstrated experience building complex systems with a strong understanding of software architecture and design principles.
- Experience with hardware or embedded systems.
- Expert knowledge of Python.
- Experience with ROS.
- Experience with white box testing
- Familiarity with networking, operating-systems, and radio communications.
- Experience designing automated tooling for testing for GUI applications.
- Experience designing automated tooling for testing server applications.
Skills Required
- Minimum of 7 years related experience with a bachelor's degree (or 6 years with a master's, or 4 years with a PhD).
- Proficiency in programming languages including Python or C++.
- Experience with autonomous systems or server applications or middleware.
- Demonstrated experience designing integration workflows and triaging/reporting integration defects across subsystem boundaries.
- Proficiency with simulation tools and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing environments.
- Strong expertise with CI/CD pipelines.
- Strong problem-solving skills and proven track record of delivering high-quality software solutions.
- Excellent communication skills, able to collaborate across teams and present to customers or technical leadership.
- Ability to analyze system logs, telemetry, and rosbag data to diagnose integration defects.
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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Shield AI Teams
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Shield AI Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
