Senior Real-Time Safety-Critical C++ Engineer

Shield; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the design, development, and integration of a Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product for safe autonomous operation. The Foundations team delivers core capabilities for edge intelligence and resilience across diverse platforms.

You will drive architecture, testing, and certification activities, mentor engineers, and collaborate on ensuring robust, verifiable software with DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516 standards.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years with a Master’s; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrated excellence in designing and developing C++ based safety-critical software with Real-Time guarantees.
• Experience mentoring other engineers to promote software best practices.
• Experience integrating software on real-world physical systems to improve performance and reliability.
• Deep expertise in C++ software architecture design patterns and practical implementations.
• Strong knowledge of software assurance certifications such as DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516.
• Strong Git and Linux development skills, plus CI/CD and test-driven development.
• A track record of technical leadership and guiding teams through complex challenges.

Responsibilities

• Drive architecture, development, integration and testing of a Run-Time Assurance module for safe autonomous operation.
• Collaborate with Foundations engineers to integrate with low-assurance mission-autonomy software and high-assurance middleware.
• Specialize and test the RTA capability across platforms to ensure robust fail-safe behavior.
• Promote principled software development practices, including code analysis, audit trails and ADRs.
• Generate artifacts to enable certifiability of Foundations software (ADRs, ICDs, system models).
• Mentor Foundations developers on safe software development to improve quality and assurance.

Skills

C++ design

RT systems

Mentoring

Git/Linux

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/EE or equivalent

Tools

Git

Linux

CI/CD

Static analysis tools

Job description

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the design, development, and integration of a Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product for safe autonomous operation. The Foundations team delivers core capabilities for edge intelligence and resilience across diverse platforms.

You will drive architecture, testing, and certification activities, mentor engineers, and collaborate on ensuring robust, verifiable software with DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516 standards.