Senior Autonomy Lead, UAV Flight Software

Shieldai; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a senior leadership engineer to lead the technical delivery of autonomy capabilities for expeditionary platforms. You will own complex integration, mission autonomy, and field deployments on V-BAT and X-BAT, partnering with Aircraft, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams.

You will influence architecture, mentor engineers, drive readiness for customer deployments, and push for engineering rigor across the Expeditionary portfolio.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Expert C++ and Linux development experience.
• Experience leading complex autonomy or embedded software integration efforts.
• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams.
• Experience supporting operational test events or customer deployments.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
• Experience with Group 3 UAS or VTOL aircraft.
• Experience with custom autopilot integration.
• EO/IR or ViDAR integration.
• Long-endurance ISR missions.
• Docker, ARM embedded systems, and CI/CD experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical delivery of complex autonomy capabilities spanning platform integration, mission autonomy, and operational deployment.
• Own some of the team's most challenging technical problems—from defining flight‑autonomy interfaces and integrating advanced payloads to driving mission readiness for customer releases.
• Influence technical direction across multiple subsystems while partnering closely with the Aircraft team, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, ACP, feature crews, and customer stakeholders.
• Lead the technical execution of complex autonomy capabilities from architecture through field deployment, coordinating work across multiple engineering teams.
• Drive integration of mission autonomy, payloads, flight‑control interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi‑agent behaviors onto V‑BAT and X‑BAT.
• Serve as a primary technical partner to the Aircraft team, defining integration approaches, resolving interface issues, and ensuring mission readiness.
• Partner across Aircraft, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, ACP, and feature crews to solve complex systems integration challenges.
• Influence architecture, interface design, and integration strategy across multiple subsystems.
• Lead design reviews, contribute to ICDs, mentor engineers, and improve engineering rigor.
• Drive release readiness while supporting flight tests, customer demonstrations, and operational deployments.
• Improve integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and engineering productivity.
• Drive implementation of GCS and C2 interfaces using common open‑systems standards.
• Travel 10–20% of the year to office locations, customer sites, training events, and flight tests.

Skills

C++

Linux development

Autonomy integration

Embedded software

Technical leadership

Stakeholder collaboration

Customer deployments

SECRET clearance

Interface design

Education

BS/MS in engineering

Tools

Docker

ARM embedded systems

CI/CD

Job description

Shield AI is seeking a senior leadership engineer to lead the technical delivery of autonomy capabilities for expeditionary platforms. You will own complex integration, mission autonomy, and field deployments on V-BAT and X-BAT, partnering with Aircraft, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams.

You will influence architecture, mentor engineers, drive readiness for customer deployments, and push for engineering rigor across the Expeditionary portfolio.