Staff Engineer, Human Machine Interface (R6070)

The role

You will lead the design and build of operator-facing software for autonomous uncrewed systems, including mission planning, command and control, and debrief tools. This is a hands-on technical leadership role working with autonomy, systems, flight-test, product, and operational teams.

What you will do

• Lead technical direction and architecture for HMI capabilities across Hivemind Solutions products.
• Design and deliver applications for mission planning, command and control, vehicle and payload supervision, system health, and post-mission debrief.
• Build map-centric and data-rich interfaces that show vehicle state, autonomy intent, mission status, alerts, and degraded conditions.
• Develop HMI using React and TypeScript, and Qt/QML where appropriate.
• Design data flows and interfaces between frontends, C++ services, autonomy software, vehicle interfaces, and telemetry or video sources.
• Define and negotiate APIs, data models, and interface contracts with internal teams and external partners.
• Lead design reviews, code reviews, and engineering practices for quality and release readiness.
• Support simulation, operator-in-the-loop testing, flight test, field activity, and customer demonstrations.
• Debug complex HMI and mission-system issues across performance, networking, messaging, video, and vehicle integration.
• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across frontend, HMI, and mission-system software.

Required qualifications

• Tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related discipline.
• Significant professional experience delivering complex user-facing software, ideally as a staff, principal, lead, or senior technical engineer.
• Strong experience with a modern HMI or frontend stack such as React, TypeScript, HTML/CSS, Qt/QML, or comparable frameworks.
• Strong C++ fundamentals and experience with production native software, backend services, or performance-sensitive systems.
• Experience with APIs, distributed systems, asynchronous data flows, messaging, and client/server architectures.
• Experience building interfaces that consume real-time or high-rate operational data.
• Experience owning software from architecture through integration, testing, deployment, and operational support.
• Strong debugging, profiling, technical communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading technical decisions.
• Ability to obtain and maintain an Australian Government security clearance.

Nice to have

• Experience with uncrewed systems, aviation, robotics, autonomy, ground control stations, command and control, or defence systems.
• Experience with geospatial or map-based applications, telemetry visualisation, payload control, live video, or mission replay tools.
• Familiarity with MAVLink, ROS/ROS 2, DDS, REST, WebSockets, STANAG 4586, or related mission-system technologies.
• Experience with real-time, bandwidth-constrained, or degraded-network environments.
• Familiarity with RTSP, WebRTC, GStreamer, H.264/H.265, or GPU-accelerated visualisation.
• Experience with human factors, operator workflows, autonomy supervision, or usability testing.
• Experience supporting field integration, flight test, or customer demonstrations.
• Defence industry experience and/or an existing Australian Government security clearance.

Before you apply

• Australian citizenship is mandatory for this role.
• An Australian Government security clearance is required; the company will sponsor the clearance.
• All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check.

About the company

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