Shield AI
Staff Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities – Maritime (R5325)
Washington, D.C. · Staff · Full-time · Posted Sep 23, 2026
- Experience
- Typically a minimum of 7 years related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; 6 years with a Master’s degree; 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Education
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience.
About the job
Leads development and deployment of maritime autonomy capabilities for unmanned surface and underwater vehicles and cooperating UAVs, including planning, localization, safe operations, and multi-agent collaboration.
What you'll do
- Lead technical delivery of autonomy software, including motion planning, localization and tracking, safety assurance, and heterogeneous multi-agent coordination.
- Develop, test, integrate, and deploy high-performance autonomy modules on real maritime platforms; support demonstrations and analyze mission logs.
- Guide technical approaches and roadmaps, prototype algorithms, and collaborate with perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and operational-test teams.
What they ask for
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a similar degree, or equivalent practical experience.
- Proficiency in C++ and Python and familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS).
- Significant background in robotics technologies related to motion planning, behavior modeling, decision-making, or autonomous system design; experience with unmanned-system technologies and algorithms.
- Experience with simulation tools and environments such as AFSIM or NGTS; ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
Nice to have
- Experience across multiple aerospace domains; experience spanning classical control, optimization, and applied ML/RL.
- Background in collaborative behaviors or swarm robotics; familiarity with DoD or government programs; hands-on integration, demos, or live exercises.
Tools
C++, Python, RTOS, AFSIM, NGTS, ML/RL
AI focus
Develops autonomy capabilities for maritime unmanned vehicles and cooperating UAVs, including motion planning, localization and tracking, safe autonomous behaviors, and multi-agent coordination.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative