Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration (R5193)

Job details

Work model

On-site

Salary

$233,760 - $350,640

Location

Washington, DC; San Diego, California; Boston, MA

Hiring context

How this role compares at Shield AI

Shield AI has 443 live roles in MeritLog’s catalog across 12 job families, and 349 of them are in engineering. 356 of those listings publish a pay range, a disclosure rate of 80%.

This role's posted range of $233,760 - $350,640 sits above 94% of the 335 other Shield AI roles quoted over the same currency and period.

Counted across the job boards MeritLog tracks, at the time this page was served. Pay comparisons use only listings that publish a complete range in the same currency and period.

Job description

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. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.  The Autonomous Pilot Integration team builds autonomy solutions for a wide range of CONOPs and mission sets. We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., track fusion), and the HivemindSDK to develop the autonomy software that runs on an unmanned platform - air, maritime, space, or effects/expendables, depending on the program - then integrate, validate, and field it on the real hardware. In this role, you'll write new autonomy code - such as mission behaviors, platform-specific control, multi-agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy - and own it end-to-end from software-in-the-loop, to hardware-in-the-loop, to vehicle-in-the-loop, to live test exercise. You'll partner closely with the Autonomy Capabilities and Perception teams, feature crews, and external platform integrators (vehicle/autopilot control vendors, C2 providers). It's a hands-on role for engineers who like seeing their code operate in the real world - whether that's flying, sailing, orbiting, or downrange - and want to be there when it does.  At this level, you'll own the technical direction across multiple programs - driving the autonomy reference implementation and common patterns that portfolios adopt, anticipating where the autonomy stack needs to evolve, adapting as programs and priorities shift, and aligning with engineering leadership early. You'll serve as the subject-matter expert other teams seek out on hard, ambiguous problems in unknown solution spaces; mentor senior engineers and other team leads; drive cross-team improvements in rigor and process; and represent the team to engineering leadership, customer/program offices, and standards bodies.  Shield AI is committed to developing cutting-edge autonomy for unmanned platforms across every operating domain - air, maritime, space, and effects/expendables - in service of the U.S. Department of Defense and our international defense customers. Our Autonomous Pilot Integration engineers bridge the gap between R&D and deployment, ensuring autonomous systems function reliably and effectively wherever and whenever they're needed most.