Shield AI
Chief Engineer, Autonomy — Space Domain (R5150)
Washington, D.C. · Full-time · Posted Oct 2, 2026
- Experience
- 12+ years; progressively responsible experience in autonomy, space systems, aerospace, robotics, mission systems, ISR, satellite operations, distributed systems, or comparable fields.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, electrical/computer engineering, systems engineering, applied mathematics, robotics, physics, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
About the job
Leads the technical vision, architecture, delivery, verification, and operational readiness of mission-ready autonomy systems for national-security space missions.
What you'll do
- Own space-autonomy architecture, technical execution, product quality, risk management, and verification strategy across the system lifecycle.
- Lead development of autonomous tasking, payload coordination, processing, exploitation, and dissemination capabilities across space, ground, and cloud/edge systems.
- Lead technical reviews and customer engagement, and build and mentor a multidisciplinary engineering organization.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in a related technical discipline; the posting lists computer science, engineering, mathematics, robotics, and physics fields.
- 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in autonomy, space systems, or comparable complex technical fields.
- Senior technical leadership experience accountable for end-to-end system outcomes, plus experience leading multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
- Significant experience designing, integrating, testing, and operationalizing reliable software-intensive mission systems; customer-facing technical work is also required.
Nice to have
- Advanced degree; experience with government, defense, intelligence, civil-government, or commercial-space programs.
- Experience transitioning autonomy into sustained operations, operational testing or on-orbit work, safety or cybersecurity practices, reusable autonomy platforms, or TS/SCI clearance eligibility.
Tools
Hivemind, EO/IR, SAR, RF, SIGINT, AIS, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop
AI focus
Leads development and operational delivery of autonomy, including autonomous tasking and planning, sensor fusion, event and anomaly detection, and automated exploitation of mission data.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative