Staff Engineer, Systems Safety (R4823)

Reposted 14 Hours Ago
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San Diego, CA, USA
In-Office
140K-210K Annually
Senior level
Aerospace • Artificial Intelligence • Machine Learning • Robotics • Software
Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
The Role
Serve as the safety authority for airborne Hivemind software: derive and allocate safety requirements, maintain traceability, lead hazard and failure analyses (FHA/FMEA/FTA), author safety documentation and system models, collaborate across the stack to integrate safety into architecture, and support generation and validation of certification evidence.
Summary Generated by Built In
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Job Description:
This role is hands-on and highly collaborative, requiring experience with safety-critical software systems and familiarity with airborne software safety processes (DO-178C, ARP4761, ARP4754A, and/or MIL-HDBK-516C). It requires strong software system intuition, and a software engineering background. You will serve as a safety authority across the Hivemind platform team, ensuring that safety considerations are built into architecture decisions, requirements, code, and verification strategies from the outset - not bolted on at the end. 

What you'll do:

  • Safety requirements development:
  • Derive and author safety requirements from system-level hazard analyses, functional hazard assessments (FHAs), and customer/regulatory safety objectives.
  • Translate safety requirements into clear, testable software requirements aligned with the appropriate Design Assurance Level (DAL) or software criticality classification.
  • Collaborate with requirements engineers, system architects, product managers, software developers, and test engineers to ensure safety requirements flow consistently and traceably through product and component requirements. 
  • Requirements traceability and verification support:
  • Maintain bidirectional traceability from safety requirements through design, implementation, and verification.
  • Collaborate with QA and test teams to define verification strategies, review test cases for safety coverage, and confirm that safety requirements are demonstrably satisfied prior to release. 
  • Documentation and modeling:
  • Author clear, well-structured safety documentation and contribute to system models (SysML/MBSE) with a safety lens - capturing safety-relevant behavior, failure propagation paths, and mitigations.
  • Produce artifacts that are defensible to airworthiness authorities and understandable to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. 
  • Hazard and safety analysis:
  • Lead and support safety analysis activities including Functional Hazard Assessments (FHA), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Failure Mode and Effects Summary (FMES) for Hivemind software components and autonomy pipelines.
  • Identify safety-relevant failure conditions, assess severity, and drive mitigation strategies into the system architecture. 
  • Cross-stack safety integration: 
  • Work closely with engineers across the full product stack - including foundational software, autonomy and AI algorithms, simulation and test infrastructure, and GUI layers - to ensure safety requirements are correctly allocated to software components and that the system architecture supports safe operation under both nominal and off-nominal conditions. 
  • Certification Evidence Support:
  • Collaborate with teams to ensure that process adherence, artifact completeness, and traceability are continuously demonstrated through development artifacts rather than assessed solely through manual reviews.
  • Support the generation, organization, and validation of certification evidence, ensuring it is accurate, complete, and defensible for internal and external airworthiness assessments

Required qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree with approximately 7+ years of relevant experience, or Master’s degree with approximately 5+ years of relevant experience, in Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field with demonstrated experience on safety-critical airborne software. 
  • Experience working within or applying safety-critical standards (e.g., DO-178C, MIL-HDBK-516C, ARP4754A, ARP4761) 
  • Experience deriving safety requirements and allocating them to software components at defined criticality levels. 
  • Experience in software development workflows in modern languages (C++, Python, Go, etc.) and software engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, configuration management, and software lifecycle processes. 
  • Familiarity with requirements management tools such as DOORS, Jama, or Jira, and with maintaining traceability across a safety software lifecycle. 
  • Experience working cross-functionally with software engineers, test engineers, and product managers in a fast-paced, mission-critical environment. 
  • Strong organizational, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills; ability to translate safety obligations into actionable engineering guidance

Preferred qualifications:

  • Familiarity with MBSE practices and system modeling tools (Cameo, SysML) as applied to safety-critical architectures. 
  • Prior experience with military airworthiness authority (USAF, Army, Navy) coordination. 
  • Exposure to autonomy or robotic software systems and the safety challenges unique to non-deterministic or ML-enabled components. 
  • Experience creating software tooling to automate safety data management  
  • Hands-on experience working with CI/CD pipelines, automated test frameworks, and build systems to design and implement development workflows that continuously generate verifiable evidence of system behavior and support certification objectives.

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#LD

Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
 
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
 
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
 
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. 

Skills Required

  • Bachelor's degree + ~7+ years or Master's degree + ~5+ years in Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, or related field with safety-critical airborne software experience
  • Experience applying safety-critical standards (DO-178C, ARP4754A, ARP4761, MIL-HDBK-516C)
  • Experience deriving safety requirements and allocating them to software components at defined criticality/DAL levels
  • Experience with software development workflows and modern languages (C++, Python, Go) and practices (CI/CD, automated testing, configuration management, software lifecycle processes)
  • Familiarity with requirements management and traceability tools (DOORS, Jama, Jira) and maintaining bidirectional traceability
  • Experience collaborating cross-functionally with software, test, and product teams in a mission-critical environment
  • Strong organizational, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills; ability to translate safety obligations into actionable engineering guidance
  • Familiarity with MBSE practices and system modeling tools (Cameo, SysML) applied to safety-critical architectures
  • Prior experience coordinating with military airworthiness authorities (USAF, Army, Navy)
  • Exposure to autonomy/robotic software systems and safety challenges for non-deterministic or ML-enabled components
  • Experience creating software tooling to automate safety data management
  • Hands-on experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines, automated test frameworks, and build systems to continuously generate verifiable evidence for certification objectives

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Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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The Company
HQ: San Diego, CA
Year Founded: 2015

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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