Help build perception software that works beyond the lab. Shield AI’s Perception team builds software that helps autonomous aircraft and vehicles understand their surroundings and make decisions in the real world. We’re looking for an experienced engineer who enjoys solving difficult perception problems and turning those solutions into reliable autonomy capabilities.
You’ll bring depth in an area such as object tracking, classical/ML-based detection, computer vision, optimal state estimation, or sensor fusion. Working alongside autonomy, simulation, platform, and test engineers, you’ll take capabilities from an initial idea through deployment in the Hivemind product.
What you'll do:
Develop perception algorithms and production software in modern C++.
Own features from design and implementation through integration, testing, and delivery.
Investigate system behavior using sensor data, simulation, logs, and focused experiments.
Collaborate across teams to turn research and customer-driven work into reusable product capabilities.
Contribute to technical direction, review designs and code, and mentor other engineers.
Required qualifications:
Experience delivering production C++ software for perception, robotics, autonomy, or a related technical field.
Strong technical depth in at least one relevant area: detection, tracking, computer vision, image processing, estimation (e.g. Kalman Filtering), or sensor fusion.
An ability to debug complex systems and build software that others can understand, test, and maintain.
Comfort using Python or similar tools for experimentation and data analysis.
Sound technical judgment and a collaborative approach to solving problems.
Preferred qualifications:
Experience with
real sensors (EO/IR, Radar, LiDAR, IMU)
embedded or GPU deployment
resource-constrained compute environments
Skills Required
- Significant professional experience developing and delivering production C++ software for robotics, autonomy, perception, real-time systems, simulation, or complex technical products
- Deep experience in object detection, object tracking, computer vision, image processing, sensor modeling, sensor fusion, estimation, mapping, or a related technical area
- Experience delivering maintainable software beyond prototypes, including clear interfaces, tests, diagnostics, documentation, and integration into larger systems
- Strong debugging and systems-thinking skills across algorithms, architecture, data contracts, configuration, timing, coordinate frames, compute behavior, and sensor data
- Proficiency with Python tools for technical analysis, visualization, experimentation, or verification
- Experience collaborating across teams, making technical decisions amid ambiguity, and communicating designs, risks, and feedback clearly
- Experience using or quickly adopting modern AI-assisted development tools with human review and validation
- Experience developing software for autonomous aircraft, maritime systems, ground robots, automotive systems, defense applications, or deployed robotic platforms
- Experience with multi-target tracking, data association, estimation, multi-sensor or multi-agent fusion, angle-only tracking, or measurement modeling
- Experience with EO/IR imagery, video pipelines, radar, LiDAR, GNSS/INS, camera models, calibration, or time-aligned sensor data
- Familiarity with embedded Linux, edge or GPU compute, CUDA, TensorRT, NVIDIA Jetson, Qualcomm, or comparable environments
- Experience with simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, recorded-data replay, performance analyzers, or real-world sensor data evaluation
- Familiarity with CMake, Nix, Conan, GitLab CI, or comparable package, build, configuration, and CI systems
- Practical familiarity with vision foundation models, vision-language models, learned visual representations, or related robotics data and evaluation workflows
- Experience converting research, IRAD, partner-developed, or program-specific software into reusable product libraries and stable integration contracts
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials highlight comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with mental-health support and an EAP. Third-party benefits summaries also portray health coverage as a strong component of the package.
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Retirement Support — Offerings include a 401(k) with employer matching, cited on the careers page and independent benefits directories. Multiple sources indicate a match exists, though exact formulas have varied over time and warrant confirmation.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Company communications describe equity for all full-time hires and stock benefits as part of total rewards. Independent listings also note company equity/RSUs as a standard element.
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 Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
