Shield AI’s mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. We are seeking a Senior or Staff Robotics Perception Engineer to develop and deploy advanced perception and navigation capabilities for autonomous aircraft operating in complex and GNSS-denied environments.
This role requires deep expertise in visual-inertial odometry (VIO), visual SLAM, vision-based navigation, state estimation, and camera–IMU sensor fusion. You will take algorithms from early-stage prototypes through embedded implementation, field testing, and flight validation on operational autonomous platforms.
This is not a general AI/ML or object-detection role. We are looking for an engineer whose core expertise lies at the intersection of robotics perception, VIO/SLAM, state estimation, camera and inertial sensing, and real-time embedded deployment.
What you'll do:
- Design, develop, and deploy VIO, visual SLAM, visual localization, and vision-based navigation capabilities for autonomous aircraft.
- Develop robust state-estimation and sensor-fusion solutions using cameras, IMUs, and other onboard sensors.
- Build geometric computer-vision components, including feature tracking, optical flow, pose estimation, triangulation, and visual localization.
- Develop geo-localization and map-matching capabilities using satellite, aerial, or orthophoto imagery.
- Integrate perception and navigation algorithms with flight-control and autonomy systems.
- Implement and optimize algorithms in C++ for real-time operation on embedded Linux platforms.
- Develop and maintain real-time camera and video-processing pipelines using technologies such as GStreamer and V4L2.
- Optimize workloads for NVIDIA Jetson, Orin, or comparable embedded-compute platforms, including CUDA and TensorRT where appropriate.
Required qualifications:
- Significant hands-on experience developing robotics perception or navigation systems.
- Strong expertise in VIO, visual SLAM, vision-based navigation, or GNSS-denied localization.
- Deep understanding of camera–IMU sensor fusion, state estimation, calibration, and time synchronization.
- Strong knowledge of geometric computer vision, including feature tracking, optical flow, pose estimation, triangulation, and visual localization.
- Experience deploying perception or navigation capabilities on UAS/UAVs or other autonomous robotic platforms.
- Strong C++ development skills and experience working in Linux environments.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with NVIDIA Jetson, Orin, or similar embedded-compute platforms.
- Experience optimizing perception workloads using CUDA, TensorRT, or comparable acceleration technologies.
- Hands-on experience with GStreamer, V4L2, camera pipelines, and real-time video processing.
- Experience deploying containerized software to embedded platforms using Docker.
- Experience with vision-based navigation, geo-localization, or map matching using satellite, aerial, or orthophoto imagery.
- Familiarity with frameworks and libraries such as OpenVINS, VINS-Fusion, ORB-SLAM3, GTSAM, Ceres Solver, OpenCV, or Kalibr.
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- 3+ years of experience developing and integrating software for robotics, autonomy, aerospace, embedded systems, or related technical fields
- Strong software engineering experience in C++ and Python, including development, debugging, and system integration
- Experience contributing to complex software systems in robotics, autonomy, aerospace, embedded systems, or related domains
- Experience working with Linux-based systems and development environments
- Hands-on experience integrating and troubleshooting hardware and software systems
- Experience supporting field testing, flight testing, demonstrations, or operational exercises
- Familiarity with MAVLink, PX4, ArduPilot, QGroundControl, or related unmanned systems technologies
- Experience debugging distributed or cross-disciplinary systems involving software, networking, sensors, radios, onboard compute, and mission systems
- Strong sense of ownership and ability to operate independently in fast-paced environments
- Strong problem-solving mindset and willingness to work across disciplines
- Ability to travel within Ukraine as required
- Experience supporting autonomous aircraft or unmanned systems
- Experience with SIL, HIL, VIL, simulation, or flight test environments
- Familiarity with ROS, DDS, embedded systems, or real-time systems
- Experience with RF communications, datalinks, and networking systems
- Experience supporting live flight demonstrations or operational deployments
- Familiarity with flight controllers, avionics systems, and aircraft integration
- Experience building internal tools for testing, automation, telemetry analysis, or operational support
- Background in defense, robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems
- Ukrainian and English language proficiency
- Experience operating in fast-paced and dynamic field environments
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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