Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy Behaviors; R4588

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture‑backed deep‑tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V‑BAT and X‑BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia‑Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide.

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The Autonomy Capabilities team at Shield AI has assembled a diverse team of experts in software, robotics, control systems, optimization, and data analysis to create software solutions that greatly evolve the capabilities of our customers. The team is responsible for developing autonomous behaviors within Shield AI’s industry‑leading mission autonomy software stack and deploying 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.

We work in close coordination with specialist teams in software integration, hardware, and test engineering to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll build and own autonomy behaviors that directly power our products, taking responsibility for key components from design through deployment. You’ll work across teams to turn complex mission needs into reliable, scalable software, balancing near‑term delivery with long‑term maintainability and performance. In this role, you’ll play a critical part in shaping how autonomy capabilities are designed, integrated, and evolved across our platforms.

• Develop tactical autonomy software to enable unmanned platforms to perform complex missions across air, land, sea, and space domains with limited human supervision
• Implement and test behaviors supporting multi‑agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios
• Contribute across the software development lifecycle, including requirements, design, implementation, verification, and validation, following established engineering best practices
• Collaborate with senior engineers to design and build scalable, maintainable software components that integrate with broader system architecture (e.g., sensor processing, state estimation, communications, and actuation)
• Support reuse and extensibility of autonomy behaviors by contributing to shared frameworks and codebases
• Work with internal product and program teams to deliver capabilities to vehicle platforms, helping ensure successful integration and iteration over time
• Collaborate with cross‑functional and external teams to align on interfaces and system requirements
• Apply strong software engineering fundamentals to solve complex technical problems, while continuing to grow domain expertise in autonomy and robotics systems
• Travel up to 20% to support integration, testing, and collaboration with end‑users and partner teams

• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field
• Proficient in production‑level C++ software development
• 5+ years' experience in one or more of the following: 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, release management
• Ability to contribute to the design, development, and integration of complex software systems as part of a multi‑disciplinary team
• Demonstrated problem‑solving skills and ability to learn new technologies in a fast‑paced environment
• Willingness to collaborate closely with teammates and support team objectives
• Interest in growing technical skills and, over time, providing guidance to more junior engineers
• Desire to work in a highly collaborative, fast paced, and mission‑driven environment
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

• Experience working with…