Senior Autonomy Engineer — Motion & Planning Systems

AI Chopping Block; Northern, San Diego (KY, CA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking software engineers to join the Pilot team and advance autonomous trajectory planning for real-world environments. You will contribute to state-of-the-art planning and real-time decision making across single and multi-agent systems.

Responsibilities include implementing robust C++ software with Python prototyping, developing tests, and evaluating planning stack performance in simulation and on hardware.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in computer science, robotics, or related field with 5+ years of experience, or PhD with 4+ years.
• Proven experience building and debugging nontrivial C++ software for motion planning or autonomous systems.
• Strong knowledge of modern C++, concurrency, and debugging data races and deadlocks.
• Proficiency with Python for prototyping, analysis, automation, or testing.
• Solid software engineering fundamentals: algorithms, data structures, testing, version control, CI/CD, maintainable design.
• Experience on Linux platforms.

Responsibilities

• Research, design, and implement state-of-the-art autonomous trajectory planning algorithms.
• Build reliable software in C++ with Python for prototyping and testing.
• Develop tests and evaluate planning stack performance in simulation and hardware.
• Diagnose complex algorithmic and software failures (concurrency, performance, integration).
• Collaborate across teams to refine requirements and deliver capabilities.
• Mentor junior engineers and stay current with robotics advances.

Skills

C++ development

Python for prototyping

Linux debugging

Concurrency & debugging

Software engineering fundamentals

Communication & collaboration

Education

Master's degree in CS/Robotics

PhD in a related field

Tools

Git

CI/CD pipelines

Linux development

Python scripting

Job description

Shield AI is seeking software engineers to join the Pilot team and advance autonomous trajectory planning for real-world environments. You will contribute to state-of-the-art planning and real-time decision making across single and multi-agent systems.

Responsibilities include implementing robust C++ software with Python prototyping, developing tests, and evaluating planning stack performance in simulation and on hardware.