Shield AI
Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5193)
$234K–$351K
Washington, D.C. +3 · On-site · Senior Staff · Full-time · Posted Jul 21, 2026
- Location
- Washington, D.C.
Boston, Massachusetts
San Diego, California
Dallas, Texas - Experience
- 10+ years of relevant experience.
- Education
- BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
About the job
Leads technical strategy and engineering for expeditionary autonomy on V-BAT, X-BAT, and future platforms, including integration, validation, and deployment on operational hardware.
What you'll do
- Set autonomy architecture and long-term technical direction across platforms and engineering teams.
- Guide development and fielding of mission autonomy, payload integration, flight-autonomy interfaces, and multi-agent capabilities.
- Lead technical reviews, mentor senior engineers, and guide releases, deployment, and mission validation.
What they ask for
- Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
- Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.
- Track record influencing architecture and solving complex systems integration challenges; experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence.
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
Nice to have
- Experience with Group 3 UAS, VTOL platforms, or comparable autonomous systems; flight-autonomy interfaces or custom autopilot integrations.
- Experience deploying autonomy to operational military systems, working with international defense customers, or using STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS, and open-systems architectures.
Pay
USD 233,760–350,640 per year (base salary)
Tools
C++, Linux, V-BAT, X-BAT, HivemindSDK, STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS
AI focus
Develops and integrates autonomy software for unmanned aircraft, including mission behaviors, perception capabilities, and multi-agent operations.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative