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. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
Lead the development of cutting-edge autonomy software that enables unmanned systems to operate intelligently in complex, real-world environments. In this role, you will guide multidisciplinary teams to design, build, and deploy high-performance autonomy solutions—from algorithm development to system integration and field testing. Working at the intersection of robotics, aerospace, and software engineering, you’ll drive mission-critical capabilities from concept to flight, delivering resilient, scalable systems that perform in dynamic and contested conditions.
What you'll do:
Multidisciplinary Team Leadership – Lead teams across autonomy, integration, and testing by aligning technical efforts, resolving cross-functional challenges, and driving mission-focused execution. Balance hands-on technical oversight with performance optimization, innovation, and clear stakeholder communication.
Tactical Autonomy Design – Design tactical autonomy algorithms to enable unmanned aircraft to perform complex missions across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision.
High-Performance Software Development – Develop high-performance software modules that incorporate planning, decision-making, and behavior execution strategies for dynamic and adversarial environments.
Behavior Architecture Implementation – Implement and test behavior architectures that enable multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios.
Cross-Functional Collaboration – Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms.
Deployment & Field Testing – Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demos, validating performance in operationally relevant conditions.
Required qualifications:
A tertiary level qualification in Computer Science, Mechatronics, Software Engineering, Robotics or a related field
Significant professional experience in robotics, autonomy, perception or aerospace systems
Strong experience in modern C++
Experience leading teams to delivery engineering projects
Significant experience in building and delivering reliable software systems, ideally in fast-paced environments
Preferred qualifications:
Prior experience with uncrewed systems, especially in the air domain
Defence industry experience
Significant experience in one or more of the following domains:* State Estimation
Real-Time Systems
Guidance, Navigation and Control
Path Planning
