Staff Perception Engineer, Target Tracking (SD or DC) (R3128)

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind Enterprise—EdgeOS, Pilot, Commander, and Forge—as well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide.  For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.    

As a senior member within the Hivemind autonomy team, you will join an ambitious effort to rapidly design, develop, integrate, test, and deploy an all-domain multi-target tracker for the Hivemind Pilot product line. You will bring a deep understanding of object tracking theory (e.g., optimal state estimation, sensor integration, data fusion, statistical inference, dynamics modeling) and modern C++ (11 or greater) to this role.

What you'll do:

• Research and develop world-class object tracking and data association algorithms and techniques 
• Write production-quality tracking software in C++ that will be deployed on military platforms, ensuring robustness, efficiency, and scalability. 
• Develop and maintain comprehensive unit, integration, and system tests to validate your software  
• Enhance sensor models within a state-of-the-art simulation environment 
• Collaborate with other team members on product roadmap development, feature decomposition, and capacity planning within an agile development framework 
• Work in a fast-paced, collaborative, continuous development environment, enhancing analysis and performance benchmarking capabilities 

Required Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Extreme proficiency in modern C++ and object-oriented design patterns 
• Professional experience deploying C++ software for DoD acquisition programs  
• Professional experience designing state estimation algorithms (KF, EKF, UKF)  
• Demonstrated track record developing innovative solutions to modern multi-target tracking problems 
• Experience with continuous integration (CI) pipelines and automated testing frameworks in C++ 
• While familiarity with MATLAB for prototyping and algorithm development is useful, this role demands extensive experience and confidence in deploying production-level code exclusively in C++. Candidates whose primary experience is in MATLAB are unlikely to find this position a good fit. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with the full lifecycle of developing, testing, and deploying airborne EO/IR tracking systems in military environments, including real-time performance optimization in resource-constrained settings 
• Experience developing error budgets for tracking accuracy 
• Experience developing and deploying multi-hypothesis tracking algorithms  
• Experience validating and verifying tracking requirements for DoD customers 
• Familiarity with sensor line-of-sight reconstruction and error calibration 
• Familiarity with object detection algorithms in visual, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR bands  

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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.