Senior Engineer, Automated Test (R4461)

Shield AI; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 114,266 - 171,400; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI is looking for a Senior Automated Test Engineer based in San Diego, California, to design and develop advanced automated testing and CI/CD infrastructure for their autonomous platforms. The role requires a minimum of 5 years' experience in Python automation, CI/CD processes and collaboration across engineering teams. They offer a comprehensive compensation package including salary, bonus, benefits, and equity, influenced by skills and experience, aiming for excellence in reliability and quality in mission-critical environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience building scalable, maintainable automation frameworks and/or developer tooling in Python.
• 5+ years of experience developing CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI, YAML, and shell scripting.
• Strong debugging and problem-solving skills in complex software systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop automated test frameworks for Autonomy and UI.
• Create and maintain CI/CD pipelines in GitLab.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to improve software quality.

Skills

Python-based automation

Distributed systems testing

CI/CD practices

Debugging skills

Collaboration and communication

Tools

GitLab

Go

TypeScript

Linux-based environments

Job description

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture‑backed deep‑tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia‑Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai.

The Hivemind Software Engineering Integration and Test team is seeking a Senior Automated Test Engineer to design, develop, and scale advanced automated testing and CI/CD infrastructure for our next‑generation autonomy platform. You will help develop test frameworks that enable this software ecosystem to create, test and deploy resilient autonomy capabilities for unmanned aircraft and robotic platforms operating in complex, contested, and GPS‑denied environments. You will work with a robust suite of autonomy and mission software components, including production flight code, simulation and synthetic environment tooling, mission planning and orchestration systems, operator‑facing Ground Control Station (GCS) applications, telemetry and data pipelines, and cloud‑native developer infrastructure.

In this role, you will help ensure the reliability, scalability, and quality of the Hivemind ecosystem through advanced automation, validation infrastructure, and AI‑assisted engineering workflows. You will develop automated test frameworks, CI/CD systems, and verification tooling that support distributed autonomy software spanning onboard edge compute, APIs, web‑based operator interfaces, simulation environments, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop systems. Working closely with software, autonomy, simulation, and systems engineering teams, you will contribute to a high‑assurance development environment focused on mission‑critical reliability, rapid iteration, and engineering excellence. The ideal candidate has strong experience in Python‑based automation, distributed systems testing, developer tooling, and modern CI/CD practices, along with an interest in autonomy, aerospace, robotics, or safety‑critical software systems. Experience leveraging AI‑assisted development and intelligent automation tools to accelerate testing, debugging, analytics, and developer productivity is highly valued.

What You’ll Do:

• Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks for Autonomy and UI applications.
• Develop scalable automated test infrastructure for functional, integration, regression, system, and end‑to‑end testing across distributed software and hardware environments.
• Create and maintain CI/CD pipelines in GitLab using YAML configurations and shell scripting to support automated build, test, and deployment workflows.
• Build workflow automation tools and utilities in Python to improve test execution efficiency, reporting, environment setup, and developer productivity.
• Develop and maintain UI and API test automation using Go and TypeScript for modern web‑based operator interfaces and mission control applications.
• Integrate automated testing into continuous integration environments to support rapid software delivery and high reliability standards.
• Collaborate closely with software, autonomy, simulation, and systems engineering teams to define verification strategies and improve software quality throughout the development lifecycle.
• Develop automated validation solutions for safety‑critical and mission‑critical aerospace software systems.
• Create test harnesses, simulators, stubs, and mocks to support automated verification in both simulated and hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) environments.
• Analyze test results, troubleshoot failures, and work with development teams to isolate root causes and improve system reliability.
• Improve test coverage, execution speed, maintainability, and observability of automated test systems.
• Contribute to software quality standards, coding best practices, and automation architecture decisions.
• Maintain clear technical documentation for test frameworks, automation workflows, CI/CD infrastructure, and validation procedures.
• Support release qualification activities and ensure traceability between requirements, tests, and verification results where applicable.
• Represent the Integration and Test Role in design reviews and advocate for a culture of engineering excellence and continuous improvement.
• Develop AI‑assisted engineering workflows and analytics tools using modern coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and related LLM‑based development platforms to improve test generation, failure triage, debugging, and developer productivity.
• Design intelligent automation pipelines that leverage AI‑assisted code generation, log analysis, test analysis, and workflow orchestration to accelerate software verification and validation processes.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI‑driven software engineering tools into automated test and CI/CD ecosystems while maintaining reliability, traceability, and engineering quality standards.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience building scalable, maintainable automation frameworks and/or developer tooling in Python.
• 5+ years of experience working with package management, dependency management, and build systems using tools such as conan, pip, setuptools, poetry, and nix or similar.
• 5+ years of experience building tooling for automated log collection, analytics, reporting, and failure triage.
• Strong understanding of asynchronous and concurrent programming in Python for scalable automation and parallel test execution.
• Experience developing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI, YAML, and shell scripting.
• Experience with automated testing of distributed systems, backend services, APIs, and web‑based UIs.
• Familiarity with modern test frameworks, automated validation strategies, and software quality methodologies.
• Experience working in Linux‑based development environments.
• Strong debugging and problem‑solving skills in complex software systems.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills in cross‑functional engineering environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience integrating Python with native C/C++ libraries and applications using bindings, wrappers, subprocess interfaces, or interoperability tooling.
• Proficiency with Go and/or TypeScript for automation tooling or UI test development.
• Experience with C++ development or testing.
• Aerospace, robotics, autonomy, or safety‑critical software experience.
• Familiarity with simulation, hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL), or embedded system testing.

Full‑time regular employee offer package: Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity.

Temporary employee offer package: Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment).

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part‑time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

114266 - 171400 USD a year

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.