Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5193)

The role

This senior staff engineer will set the long-term technical direction for expeditionary autonomy across the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. The role covers mission autonomy, flight-autonomy interfaces, payload integration and multi-agent operations, and includes mentoring senior engineers.

What you will do

• Define and drive the long-term technical direction for expeditionary autonomy across V-BAT, X-BAT and future platforms.
• Guide development of mission autonomy, payload integration, flight-autonomy interfaces, executive autonomy and multi-agent capabilities.
• Establish long-term technical strategy with the Aircraft team for platform integration and interface evolution.
• Influence architecture across Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), Aircraft and customer organizations.
• Serve as the organization's technical expert for complex autonomy integration challenges.
• Lead architecture reviews, engineering standards, interface definitions and technical improvements.
• Mentor senior engineers, develop technical leaders and contribute to leveling frameworks.
• Guide customer releases, deployment strategy and mission validation.
• Define technical strategy for command-and-control interoperability and open-systems standards.
• Define the technical hiring bar for senior engineering roles.

Required qualifications

• BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
• Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.
• Proven track record influencing architecture and solving highly complex systems integration challenges.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Nice to have

• Extensive experience with Group 3 UAS, VTOL platforms or comparable autonomous systems.
• Experience defining flight-autonomy interfaces or custom autopilot integrations.
• Experience deploying autonomy to operational military systems.
• Experience with international defense customers.
• Experience with STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS and open-systems architectures.
• Experience shaping engineering practices across an organization.

Benefits

• Bonus, benefits and equity for full-time regular employees.
• Temporary benefits package for temporary employees, applicable after 60 days of employment.

Before you apply

• Offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance is required.
• 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, including Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation technologies. It has offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.