Senior Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Emerging Domains (R5423

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). Follow Shield AI on Linked In, X, Instagram, and You Tube.

The Autonomous Pilot Integration team for Emerging Domains builds autonomy solutions for new platforms and mission profiles outside Shield AI's established portfolios—including space (satellites, missile defense), maritime (USV and UUV integration), and contested logistics (unmanned helicopters and related autonomous resupply platforms). The team takes on short‑term R&D and integration efforts—often standing up the first autonomy on a brand‑new platform or mission—with the intent that successful efforts grow into larger, multi‑year programs.

We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., ViDAR, ATR), and the Hivemind SDK—selectively leveraging existing Shield AI autonomy solutions where they apply—to develop autonomy that runs on these new platforms. Our engineers write new autonomy code—such as mission behaviors, platform‑specific control, multi‑agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy—and own it end‑to‑end from software‑in‑the‑loop, to hardware‑in‑the‑loop, to vehicle‑in‑the‑loop, to live test exercise.

In this role, you'll develop and integrate autonomy capabilities across a variety of emerging‑domain platforms while helping establish autonomy on systems that often have no existing autonomy baseline. You'll work closely with platform teams, the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams, feature crews, and customer stakeholders to solve complex integration challenges and deliver mission‑ready autonomy software. This is a hands‑on role for engineers who enjoy working across diverse platforms, solving ambiguous technical problems, and seeing new capabilities operate in real‑world environments.

Help establish autonomy on new platforms and mission areas by integrating existing Shield AI capabilities with platform‑specific software and developing new autonomy where needed.

Develop and integrate autonomy software onto emerging‑domain platforms, including platform and autopilot integration, payload and sensor integration, mission behaviors, multi‑agent coordination, and validation through software‑ , hardware‑, vehicle‑, and live testing.

Partner closely with platform teams to integrate autonomy capabilities, validate interfaces, coordinate hardware/software compatibility, and support mission readiness.

Work with the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS teams, feature crews, and customer/program offices to deliver integrated autonomy solutions.

Contribute to design reviews, ICDs, integration planning, and post‑mortems while improving engineering rigor across teams.

Build, configure, validate, and prepare mission‑ready systems while coordinating release readiness with platform and capability teams.

Support flight tests, maritime trials, ground testing, customer demonstrations, and operational exercises through system bring‑up, troubleshooting, and mission execution.

Diagnose and resolve integration issues across autonomy software, payload computers, embedded systems, and platform interfaces.

Capture mission data, reproduce issues in simulation, and partner with capability owners to rapidly improve future releases.

Develop tools and engineering processes that improve integration velocity, testing reliability, and mission readiness.

Implement and validate interfaces with command‑and‑control systems while…