Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Weapons (R5398)

Shield AI; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is seeking engineers to define the technical direction for the Launched Effects portfolio, delivering scalable autonomy solutions for multi-agent fleets and challenging environments.

You will work with teams spanning motion planning, perception, and the HivemindSDK to ensure mission-ready autonomy on real hardware for U.S. and international defense customers.

Qualifications

• Experience developing autonomy software for multi-agent platforms.
• Ability to integrate autonomy solutions from perception and motion planning teams.

Responsibilities

• Define technical direction for the Launched Effects portfolio and evolve autonomy architecture.
• Collaborate with engineering leadership, autopilot vendors, C2 providers, and customers to deliver reliable autonomy capabilities.

Job description

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

The Autonomous Pilot Integration team for launched effects builds autonomy solutions for small, often air- or ground-launched platforms thatoperatein multi-agent fleets andfrequentlyin disconnected or air-gapped environments. We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., track fusion), and theHivemindSDKto develop the autonomy software that runs on launched effects platforms, then integrate, validate, and field it on the real hardware—for U.S. and international defense customers. Our engineers write new autonomy code—such as mission behaviors, platform-specific control, multi-agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy—and own it end-to-end from software-in-the-loop, to hardware-in-the-loop, to vehicle-in-the-loop, to live test exercise.

In this role,you'lldefine the technical direction for the Launched Effects portfolio, driving the evolution of autonomy architecture across multiple programs while ensuring scalable, mission-ready solutions for fleet-scale operations.You'llsolve the organization's most complex integration challenges, influence long-term technical strategy, and partner with engineering leadership, the Autonomy Capabilities and Perception teams, autopilot vendors, C2 providers, and customer stakeholders to deliver autonomy capabilities that perform reliably in operational environments.