Mission Systems Software Engineer - BlueSky (R5199)

The role

This role builds the software architecture for the real-time mission computer of an autonomous aircraft, covering sensors, weapons, and related systems. The engineer works with hardware, software, and systems teams from design reviews through lab test, flight test, and fielding.

What you will do

• Serve as software mission systems engineer for a safety- and mission-critical real-time mission-computing system.
• Define and maintain the end-to-end software architecture, including APIs and interfaces.
• Architect for deterministic real-time performance, including scheduling, latency, and resource allocation.
• Develop architecture views, interface definitions, timing diagrams, resource budgets, and technical decision records.
• Integrate sensors, effectors, communications, navigation, autonomy, and command-and-control with other teams.
• Design for fault tolerance, redundancy, cybersecurity, and requirements traceability.
• Define verification strategies across HIL/SIL labs, simulations, flight tests, and deployed systems.
• Maintain technical ownership through the system lifecycle, including evaluating technologies and managing technical debt.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 3+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership.
• Experience with embedded, distributed, real-time, safety-critical, or mission-critical software systems.
• Proficiency in C, C++, Rust, or another strongly typed systems-programming language.
• Strong understanding of real-time principles, including scheduling, concurrency, synchronization, and deterministic execution.
• Experience with embedded operating systems or RTOSs, middleware, interprocess communication, networking, and data distribution.
• Experience defining software architectures, APIs, interface-control documents, and system resource budgets.
• Experience integrating software with hardware, sensors, communications, navigation, or effectors.
• Experience supporting software through requirements, design reviews, integration, verification, system test, and deployment.
• Working knowledge of systems engineering, requirements management, configuration management, and verification and validation.
• Ability to analyze system performance using telemetry, traces, profiling, and timing data.
• Strong cross-functional technical leadership, problem-solving, written communication, and presentation skills.

Nice to have

• Experience developing software for autonomous aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, avionics, mission computers, robotics, or aerospace and defense platforms.
• Experience with A-GRA, AMS-GRA, OMS, UCI, FACE, or other government reference architectures and open-mission-system standards.
• Experience integrating autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, sensor processing, communications, navigation, and effector capabilities.
• Familiarity with airworthiness or certification standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or military airworthiness guidance.
• Experience with CPU-, GPU-, FPGA-, or accelerator-based heterogeneous computing.
• Experience with publish/subscribe middleware, quality-of-service controls, high-rate data distribution, and precision timing.
• Experience designing cybersecurity controls for embedded or mission systems.
• Experience with HIL/SIL environments, simulation systems, laboratory integration, flight testing, or operational deployment.
• Experience evaluating supplier designs, RTOSs, middleware, or third-party software for architectural compliance.
• Active or previously held U.S. Department of Defense Secret clearance.

Benefits

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

Before you apply

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance is required.
• U.S. citizenship may be required for clearance eligibility.
• All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
• Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits.

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.