Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy Behaviors (R4588)

The Rundown AI, Inc.; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Bonus

Equity

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

The Rundown AI, Inc. is looking for a Staff Software Engineer for the Autonomy Behaviors team to develop tactical autonomy software for unmanned platforms. This role includes leading technical projects and collaborating across teams to deliver advanced behaviors in various operational modes.

The ideal candidate will have a strong C++ development background, 7+ years in software subsystem integration, and a capacity for mentorship in a collaborative work environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in behavior planning and task allocation.
• Ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams from concept to deployment.
• Desire to work in a collaborative and fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop autonomy software for unmanned platforms across various domains.
• Work throughout the software development lifecycle from design to validation.
• Act as a technical expert representing software equities in multi-stakeholder scenarios.

Skills

C++ software development

Software system integration

Collaborative teamwork

Technical leadership

Mission-centric mindset

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Collaborative software development tools

Simulation tools

Job description

About the Team

The Autonomy Capabilities team at Shield AI assembles experts in software, robotics, control systems, optimization, and data analysis to create software solutions that greatly evolve the capabilities of our customers. The team develops autonomous behaviors within Shield AI’s mission autonomy software stack and deploys them across a breadth of platforms, including the Anduril Fury, Northrup Grumman Talon, Shield AI V-Bat, and other first- and third-party autonomous vehicles.

About the Job

Staff Software Engineers on the Autonomy Behaviors team will lead the delivery of autonomous behaviors into our products, acting as technical leads, extremely senior individual contributors, and/or as team leads that are also hands‑on contributors. Staff Engineers demonstrate end‑to‑end ownership, driving the architecting, design, delivery, support, and evolution of safe and effective mission autonomy software throughout the product lifecycle.

What You’ll Do

• Develop tactical autonomy software to enable unmanned platforms to perform complex missions across air, land, sea, and space domains with minimal human supervision.
• Implement and test behaviors that enable multi‑agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios.
• Work throughout the entire software development lifecycle, from requirements capture through design, implementation, verification, and validation, utilizing tools and workflows consistent with collaborative high‑quality software development.
• Champion a product‑line mindset in technology road‑mapping to enable reuse of behaviors across multiple projects and portfolios.
• Architect behaviors as scalable software subsystems that may interact directly or indirectly with a breadth of system components (e.g., sensor processing, state estimation, peer‑to‑peer communications, contingency management, actuation, and payload interfacing).
• Leverage internal product and program‑specific engineering teams to rapidly deliver state‑of‑the‑art capabilities to vehicle platforms (whether internally and externally owned), with a clear path towards architecture and capability evolution over time.
• Collaborate with external teams, aligning on interfacing requirements between diverse systems, often working closely with vehicle integration teams and operational subject‑matter experts (e.g., fighter pilots, UAV operators).
• Act as a subject‑matter expert for software engineering, representing software equities in a multi‑stakeholder environment including engineering, business and sales leadership.
• Travel to co‑locate with end‑users and/or other teams up to 20% of the time.

Required Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• Proficient in production‑level C++ software development.
• 7+ years of experience in software sub‑system scheduling and integration, behavior planning, task and resource allocation, motion planning, optimization, or flight controls.
• Experience with collaborative software development tools for version control, issue tracking, code reviews, and release management.
• Proven ability to lead multi‑disciplinary teams, set technical direction, and manage full project lifecycles from concept to deployment.
• Capacity to learn and grow individually while mentoring junior team members effectively, building team cohesion and capacity.
• Desire to work in a highly collaborative, fast‑paced, enthusiastic, and mission‑centric environment.
• Capacity to act as the technical owner for an entire software system, including stakeholder engagement, requirements definition, roadmap management, team coordination, design, implementation, sustainment, and evolution.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience across a breadth of technology readiness levels (TRLs) and demonstration of bridging concepts from research‑grade to operationally ready.
• Experience with mission systems integration, and ideally hands‑on experience supporting integration events and/or flight demonstrations.
• Experience across a multitude of application areas, including collaborative mission planning, behavior planning, synchronized teaming, automated red force vs blue force tactics, motion planning across various vehicle classes, kinematic constraints, team compositions, weapons target assignment, sensor target pairing, sensor‑centric control laws, collision avoidance, geofencing, and safety monitoring.
• Experience in more than one operational effect (e.g., strike, air combat, surveillance, reconnaissance) and more than one associated domain (e.g., air, space, maritime, ground).
• Experience with FOSS software commonly used in robotic systems (e.g., ROS, OMPL, optimization solvers).
• Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for testing and validation.
• Familiarity with practical aspects of navigation and communications systems.
• Experience across the product delivery lifecycle from emerging opportunity through system acceptance, deployment, and sustainment.
• Familiarity with systems engineering methodologies.
• Familiarity with high‑assurance software development processes (e.g., DO‑178C or equivalent MIL‑STD).

Benefits

The full‑time offer includes a competitive salary, bonus, equity, and comprehensive benefits.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.