Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy Integration (R6035)

The role

Build and maintain stable integration environments, tests and tools for Hivemind Pilot autonomy software, working with the Pilot Integration team. Debug failures across planning, controls, simulation and vehicle interfaces, and support hardware deployment and flight tests.

What you will do

• Build and maintain Pilot integration environments, reference configurations, test fixtures and end-to-end examples.
• Partner with component teams to add capabilities and maintain the integration baseline.
• Develop software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop automated tests.
• Integrate and debug production software across the autonomy stack.
• Investigate failures across system boundaries and fix integration-owned defects.
• Develop bridge blocks and adaptors for vehicle and hardware interfaces.
• Improve integration tooling for configuration, deployment, diagnostics and test orchestration.
• Support deployment to representative hardware, including lab or field debugging.
• Support the flight-test team with test readiness, troubleshooting and post-test analysis.
• Write setup guides, runbooks and technical material for Pilot training.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a field such as computer science or robotics, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience developing or integrating planning, controls, or autonomy decision-making software.
• Strong production software engineering skills in modern C++ and Python.
• Hands-on experience integrating software with robotic or autonomous hardware.
• Experience with software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testing and automated system-level tests.
• Experience developing and debugging software on Linux.
• Strong systems-debugging skills across configuration, software, network, timing and hardware boundaries.
• Ability to write maintainable tests and tools for distributed or real-time systems.
• Ability to communicate technical findings clearly with engineers from several disciplines.
• Ability to travel periodically and support lab, field or flight-test events.

Nice to have

• Experience integrating across several autonomy domains such as perception, state estimation, planning, controls, simulation, communications or vehicle interfaces.
• Experience supporting aircraft integration or flight-test readiness.
• Experience with robotics middleware, vehicle protocols such as MAVLink, or integration adaptors.
• Experience designing repeatable, diagnosable end-to-end test environments for complex autonomous systems.
• Experience with configuration-driven systems, dependency compatibility, observability or automated test orchestration.
• Experience delivering software for fielded, real-time, safety-critical or resource-constrained systems.
• A record of leading ambiguous technical investigations or mentoring engineers through complex integration work.

Benefits

• Bonus
• Equity
• Benefits for full-time regular employees
• Temporary benefits package for temporary employees, applicable after 60 days of employment

Before you apply

• All offers are contingent on a cleared background check and possible reference check.
• Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits.
• Pay depends on factors including skill set, experience level, licenses and certifications, and work location.

About the company

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that builds intelligent systems to protect service members and civilians. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies.