Senior Engineer: Real-Time Safety-Critical Autonomy

Shield; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to design, develop, and integrate a real-time Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product for safety-critical autonomy. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for core capabilities that bring resilient autonomy to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments.

The RTA product helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge. As a member of the Foundations team, you will contribute C++ software, integrate reusable safety

Qualifications

• Requires 5+ years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 4 years with a Master's; or 2 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Strong C++ development experience, including modern C++, testing, debugging, and performance-aware design.
• Experience building software for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or similarly constrained systems.
• Experience integrating software with hardware, simulation, HIL, or production-like test environments and diagnosing issues.
• Familiarity with C++ design patterns and working within an existing architecture.
• Strong Git and Linux development skills, CI/CD, and test-focused development.
• Ability to write clear technical documentation and collaborate across teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop, integrate, and test configurable Run-Time Assurance components that monitor autonomy behavior across platforms and scenarios.
• Adapt reusable C++ safety capabilities into production runtime components with interface integration and testing.
• Implement real-time C++ code at the boundary of mission autonomy and flight-control interfaces.
• Integrate safety-critical software with aircraft hardware for HIL and flight-test campaigns.
• Strengthen engineering evidence through CI, static/dynamic analysis, code reviews, and test results.
• Share safe software practices through code reviews and technical write-ups.

Skills

C++ development

Real-time systems

Linux development

Git

CI/CD

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

CMake

Conan

Python tooling

Job description

Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to design, develop, and integrate a real-time Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product for safety-critical autonomy. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for core capabilities that bring resilient autonomy to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments.

The RTA product helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge. As a member of the Foundations team, you will contribute C++ software, integrate reusable safety