Senior Staff Engineer, Software Autonomy (R5125)

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, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. 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>](https://shield.ai/). Follow Shield AI on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/shield-ai), [X](https://x.com/shieldaitech), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/shield_ai), and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@Shield_AI).

### Job Description

The Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy will function as a hands on technical lead / subject matter expert and collaborate with Shield AI teammates / customers to build edge-AI and autonomy software for platforms across sea, air, and space. This role involves working closely with customers to understand their requirements, writing code, developing new capabilities and ensuring successful software/hardware integration, and mentoring teammates.

### What you'll do

• **Examples of Projects You will Work On:**
• Autonomous teaming drones.
• Teaming between helicopters and drones.
• Autonomy on Robodogs.
• AI Pilots for Fighter Jets
• and more!
• **Learn Hivemind:** Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise Autonomy Software Development Kit.
• **Tactical Autonomy Design** – Design tactical autonomy algorithms to enable unmanned aircraft to perform complex missions across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision.
• **High-Performance Software Development** – Develop high-performance software modules that incorporate planning, decision-making, and behavior execution strategies for dynamic and adversarial environments.
• **Behavior Architecture Implementation** – Implement and test behavior architectures that enable multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios.
• **Hybrid Autonomy Integration** – Work at the intersection of classical autonomy and machine learning, blending rule-based systems with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning to achieve robust, adaptive behavior.
• **Hardware Software Integration:**
• **Cross-Functional Collaboration** – Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms.
• **Deployment & Field Testing** – Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demos, validating performance in operationally relevant conditions.
• **Mission Data Analysis** – Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures, optimize behavior models, and inform iterative development.
• **R&D and Roadmapping** – Contribute to the autonomy roadmap by researching and prototyping new algorithms, identifying tactical capability gaps, and proposing novel solutions that advance Shield AI’s mission.
• **Program Support & Adaptation** – Support defense-focused programs and customer needs by adapting autonomy solutions to evolving mission sets, compliance requirements, and operational feedback.
• **Handover / Training:** Provide software handover and training to customers for their autonomy development efforts.
• **Documentation:** Develop and maintain technical documentation for customer as well as internal use.
• **Travel Requirement** – Members of this team typically travel around 10-15% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, and flight integration events).Travel to and stay at customer sites as required for deployment / training / flight testing etc. (~30% travel).

### Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s and Masters degree in Aerospace, AI, Computer Science, Robotics or a related engineering field.
• 12+ years of experience of industry experience
• Ability to travel and stay deployed at customer sites across India/Asia.
• 3+ years of experience hands on writing software for autonomy/robotics applications.
• 2+ years of experience working in a startup environment.
• Strong technical background in software engineering.
• Strong proficiency in writing modern C++ code.
• Intermediate proficiency in writing Python code.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability converse fluently in Hindi and English.

### Preferred qualifications

• Experience in the defense aviation or robotics industry.
• Ability to travel to USA for up to 3 months at a time for training.