Staff Autonomy Engineer - Behavior & Motion Planning

Front Door Defense; Northern, San Diego (KY, CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI in San Diego is seeking a Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy, focusing on behavior and motion planning for autonomous systems. You will develop planning algorithms and ship production software in a multidisciplinary team.

The role spans trajectory planning, real-time systems, testing in simulation and on hardware, mentoring junior engineers, and shaping architecture while collaborating across disciplines.

Qualifications

• MS/PhD in CS, Robotics, or related field with 5+ years of experience.
• Proven C++ software development for motion planning and autonomous systems.
• Strong Python for prototyping and testing; Linux experience.
• Experience with concurrency, data races, deadlocks, and debugging.

Responsibilities

• Research and implement autonomous trajectory planning algorithms.
• Develop robust C++ software and Python prototypes.
• Create tests and evaluate planning stack in simulation and hardware.
• Diagnose algorithmic and software failures; optimize performance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to refine requirements.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to architecture.

Skills

C++

Python

Robotics

Motion planning

Linux

CI/CD

Concurrency

Mentoring

Education

Master's in CS/Robotics

PhD beneficial

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Linux

ROS

Simulation tools

Job description

Shield AI in San Diego is seeking a Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy, focusing on behavior and motion planning for autonomous systems. You will develop planning algorithms and ship production software in a multidisciplinary team.

The role spans trajectory planning, real-time systems, testing in simulation and on hardware, mentoring junior engineers, and shaping architecture while collaborating across disciplines.