Senior Autonomy Engineer: Multi-Agent Robotics & Defense AI

Shieldai; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a senior autonomous systems software engineer to design and implement advanced autonomy for unmanned platforms. The role blends control theory, optimization, and ML/RL techniques to deliver robust, battlefield-ready capabilities.

You will work across perception, planning, simulation, and flight-test teams, traveling as needed to field sites. Ideal candidates have 10+ years of related experience, advanced degrees, and a proven track record in robotics, motion planning, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or higher in a relevant engineering/computer science field.
• Experience in robotics and autonomous systems is required.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python with RTOS experience.

Responsibilities

• Design tactical autonomy algorithms for unmanned platforms across air, sea, and land.
• Develop high-performance software modules for planning, decision-making, and behavior execution.
• Implement and test multi-agent coordination and robust autonomy in contested environments.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test groups.
• Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and demos.
• Analyze mission data to diagnose failures and inform iterative development.
• Contribute to autonomy roadmap through research and prototyping of new methods.

Skills

C++

Python

RTOS

Robotics

Autonomy pipelines

Team collaboration

Problem solving

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent

Tools

AFSIM

NGTS

UCI Standards

OMS Standards

Job description

Shield AI is seeking a senior autonomous systems software engineer to design and implement advanced autonomy for unmanned platforms. The role blends control theory, optimization, and ML/RL techniques to deliver robust, battlefield-ready capabilities.

You will work across perception, planning, simulation, and flight-test teams, traveling as needed to field sites. Ideal candidates have 10+ years of related experience, advanced degrees, and a proven track record in robotics, motion planning, and