Staff Engineer, Mission Systems Software (R5888)

Shield AI; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 135,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI seeks a Mission Systems Software Engineer to develop real-time mission‑computing software for autonomous aircraft. You will help define software architecture, collaborate with hardware, FPGA, cybersecurity and safety teams, and drive software from PDR to fielding.

Applicants should have 5+ years in software engineering with embedded real-time systems, strong C/C++, and a track record in architecture leadership. U.S.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and implementing real-time, safety-critical software.
• Strong C/C++ proficiency and systems programming skills.
• Experience with embedded OS and middleware integration.
• Ability to lead architecture discussions and cross-team reviews.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant engineering field.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain DoD clearance.

Responsibilities

• Define end-to-end software architecture for real-time mission systems.
• Architect for deterministic performance with scheduling and latency considerations.
• Integrate sensors, navigation, autonomy, and vehicle services with hardware teams.
• Verify designs across HIL/SIL labs, simulations, and flight tests.
• Maintain architectural decisions and manage technical debt.
• Establish engineering practices for concurrency, memory, and resources.

Skills

Real-time systems engineering

C/C++ programming

Systems architecture leadership

Problem-solving & communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field

Tools

RTOS

Middleware

Embedded tooling

Job description

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, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. 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 .

Job Description

The Mission Systems Software Engineer will work on developing solutions of a real time system environment to provide mission computing support at the center of an autonomous aircraft with sensor and weapons. This role will work to establish a software architecture for a real time system that operates in a multi-level environment at real time. The role will require work with hardware, software and systems teams to come to a consensus design. This role will focus on development of new systems and software designs from PDR, CoDR, CDR to lab test, flight test and fielding.

What you'll do

• Serve as a software mission systems engineer for a safety- and mission-critical real-time mission-computing system aligned with A-GRA and AMS-GRA principles, profiles, interfaces, and data standards.
• Define and maintain the end-to-end software architecture, including mission applications, platform services, middleware, operating-system interfaces, hardware-abstraction layers, networking, data distribution, component boundaries, and APIs.
• Architect for deterministic real-time performance by addressing scheduling, latency, jitter, synchronization, throughput, resource utilization, distributed processing, and CPU/GPU/accelerator allocation.
• Develop architecture views, interface definitions, data-flow and deployment models, sequence and timing diagrams, resource budgets, trade studies, and technical decision records.
• Integrate sensors, effectors, communications, navigation, autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, data-processing, and vehicle services in collaboration with hardware, FPGA, cybersecurity, safety, systems, integration, and test teams.
• Design for mission resilience and assurance through fault detection and isolation, redundancy, graceful degradation, recovery, health monitoring, cybersecurity, airworthiness, certification, and requirements traceability.
• Establish engineering practices for concurrency, synchronization, memory and resource management, deterministic execution, interface control, configuration management, and predictable component integration.
• Define and execute verification strategies across HIL/SIL laboratories, simulations, test benches, flight-test environments, and deployed systems using automated, performance, stress, fault-injection, interface, and timing tests.
• Maintain technical ownership throughout the system lifecycle by evaluating enabling technologies and supplier designs, analyzing performance, managing technical debt and modernization roadmaps, promoting reuse, and communicating architectural decisions.

Required qualifications

• Senior: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with 5+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 1+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership.
• Staff: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with 8+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 3+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership.
• Senior Staff: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field with 10+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 5+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership.
• Experience developing embedded, distributed, real-time, safety-critical, or mission-critical software systems.
• Proficiency in C, C++, Rust, or another strongly typed systems-programming language.
• Strong understanding of real-time software principles, including scheduling, concurrency, synchronization, latency, jitter, memory management, and deterministic execution.
• Experience with embedded operating systems or RTOSs, middleware, interprocess communication, networking, and data-distribution technologies.
• Experience defining software architectures, APIs, interface-control documents, data flows, deployment models, and system resource budgets.
• Experience integrating software with hardware, sensors, communications systems, navigation systems, effectors, or other mission-system components.
• Experience supporting software through requirements development, design reviews, implementation, integration, verification, system test, and deployment.
• Working knowledge of systems-engineering processes, requirements management, traceability, configuration management, and verification and validation.
• Ability to analyze system performance using instrumentation, telemetry, traces, profiling, network captures, timing data, and resource-utilization measurements.
• Strong cross-functional technical leadership, problem-solving, written communication, and presentation skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance; U.S. citizenship may be required for clearance eligibility.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience developing software for autonomous aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, avionics, mission computers, robotics, or aerospace and defense platforms.
• Experience with A-GRA, AMS-GRA, OMS, UCI, FACE, or other government reference architectures and open-mission-system standards.
• Experience integrating autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, sensor processing, communications, navigation, and effector capabilities.
• Familiarity with airworthiness, safety-assurance, or certification standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or applicable military airworthiness guidance.
• Experience with CPU-, GPU-, FPGA-, or accelerator-based heterogeneous computing architectures.
• Experience with publish/subscribe middleware, quality-of-service controls, high-rate data distribution, precision timing, and distributed time synchronization.
• Experience designing cybersecurity controls for embedded or mission systems, including trust boundaries, least privilege, authentication, authorization, secure communications, and software integrity.
• Experience with HIL/SIL environments, simulation systems, laboratory integration, flight testing, or operational deployment.
• Experience evaluating supplier designs, RTOSs, middleware, computing platforms, or third-party software for architectural compliance and integration readiness.
• Active or previously held U.S. Department of Defense Secret clearance.

$135,000 - $250,000 a year

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.

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.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.