Staff Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities – Maritime; R5325

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 (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).

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The Autonomy Capabilities Team develops functionality to automate single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives and acts as a central discipline-aligned focal-point for encouraging consistent usage of technical approaches across business portfolios. This team operates at all levels of the command-and-control hierarchy (from advanced control laws, through motion planning, and up to advanced tactical behaviors and multi-agent coordination) and across a multitude of mission sets, platform types, and operational domains (e.g., air, sea, space).

The team puts a strong emphasis on both fundamentals (e.g., aircraft kinematics/dynamics, trajectory design, optimization, information fusion, efficient algorithms, etc.) and software integration skillsets (e.g. structures, protocols, threading, interface management, etc.) to bring market-differentiating capabilities to customers that seamlessly operate within their integration contexts.

This position is perfect for an individual who enjoys solving complex problems across a diverse set of programs and integration contexts. An ideal candidate is expected to address operational system needs through a multitude of advanced methodologies that blend traditional control system approaches with advanced optimization. Developed solutions are expected to be integrated into real-world platforms with near-term program impacts and rewards and so balancing theory with practice and rigorous implementation is paramount.

Focusing on the maritime portfolio,you’llbecreating autonomy capabilities forUSVs,UUVs, and cooperating UAVs that enable them to perform advanced single- and multi-agent teamingmissionsbeyond conventional motion planning and waypoint following. The functionality you add will enable teams to use their diverse payloads and maneuvering characteristics tosearch for,localize,andpursuetargets while avoiding sensed threats and obstacles that pose a risk to platform safety. In many of these applications,you’llhave the opportunity to build capabilities from the ground up and be the first to integrate them onto new platforms.

You’ll traditionally start with shorter-term R&D efforts or aligned customer programs but with the intent that successful efforts will grow into larger, multi-year programs.

• Robust Motion Planning–Automate unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and/or unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) maneuvering through advanced motion planningandadherence to safety constraints including keep-out volumes, cooperative and uncooperative vehicles,anddepth limitations

• Localization and Tracking–Employ cutting edge approaches for passive and active localisation by defining fusion modalities, sensor requirements, and observability-aware maneuvering capabilities to maximise information gleaned from single- or multi-agent sensor networks

• Safe Maritime Operations–Keep vehicle safety as a central focus within autonomous behavior architectures to provide run-time assurance, ensure COLREGS adherence, and build operator trust in advanced mission autonomy

• Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Collaboration–Develop distributed optimization and task allocation approaches for heterogeneous teaming in order to accomplish mission objectives by maximally utilising the diverse capabilities of agents to overall team advantage

• Rigorous Software Development–Develop high-performance software modules that are well-tested, have clear interfaces and span-of-control, and are ready for mid‑to‑high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) insertions

• Cross-Functional Collaboration–Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning,…