Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5208

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 Autonomous Pilot Integration team for expeditionary platforms builds autonomy solutions for V-BAT — an unmanned aircraft operating in expeditionary environments for ISR, target acquisition, communications, and multi-agent missions. The team also builds autonomy for X-BAT, a new platform under development by the aircraft team; for X-BAT, the team builds on top of the existing mission autonomy solution from the Strategic Systems (ACP) portfolio and works closely with the aircraft team on the flight‑autonomy interface.

We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., ViDAR, ATR), and the Hivemind SDK to develop the autonomy software that runs on these platforms, then integrate, validate, and field it on the real hardware — for U.S. and international defense customers.

In this role,you'lllead the technical delivery of complex autonomy capabilities spanning platform integration, mission autonomy, and operational deployment.

You'llown some of the team's most challenging technical problems—from defining flight‑autonomy interfaces and integrating advanced payloads to driving mission readiness for customer releases.

You'llinfluence technical direction across multiple subsystems while partnering closely with the Aircraft team, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), feature crews, and customer stakeholders.

You'llcombine deep technicalexpertisewith systems thinking to drive successful integration across software, hardware, and operations while mentoring engineers and improving engineering practices across the Expeditionary portfolio.

Lead the technical execution of complex autonomy capabilities from architecture through field deployment, coordinating work across multiple engineering teams.

Drive integration of mission autonomy, payloads, flight‑control interfaces, executive autonomy, and multi‑agent behaviors onto V-BAT and X-BAT.

Serve as a primary technical partner to the Aircraft team, defining integration approaches, resolving interface issues, and ensuring mission readiness.

Partner across Aircraft, Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, GCS, Strategic Systems (ACP), and feature crews to solve complex systems integration challenges.

Influence architecture, interface design, and integration strategy across multiple subsystems.

Lead design reviews, contribute to ICDs, mentor engineers, and improve engineering rigor.

Drive release readiness while supporting flight tests, customer demonstrations, and operational deployments.

Improve integration workflows, testing infrastructure, and engineering productivity.

Drive implementation of GCS and C2 interfaces using common open‑systems standards.

Members of this team typically travel around 10–20% of the year to different office locations, customer sites, operator training events, flight tests, and integration exercises.

• BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of relevant experience.
• Expert C++ and Linux development experience.
• Experience leading complex autonomy or embedded software integration efforts.
• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple engineering teams.
• Experience supporting operational test events or customer deployments.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

• Experience with Group 3 UAS or VTOLaircraft.
• Experience with custom autopilot…