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Shield AI is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to lead autonomy integration efforts for its Hivemind autonomy software and autonomous aircraft platforms (V-BAT, X-BAT). This role sits at the intersection of multiple autonomy domains—perception, planning, controls, simulation, vehicle interfaces, and communications—and focuses on building stable, testable, and deployable integrated systems.
You will own the integration environment and reference configurations that enable component teams to collaborate effectively. Key responsibilities include developing and maintaining automated software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop tests; integrating and debugging production software across the autonomy stack; investigating cross-boundary failures and isolating root causes; building bridge blocks and adapters for vehicle and hardware interfaces; and creating integration-oriented tooling for configuration validation, deployment, diagnostics, and test orchestration.
You will also support deployment of integrated autonomy stacks to representative hardware, work closely with the flight-test team to define test objectives and assess readiness, and contribute to technical documentation and training materials. A significant part of the role involves identifying brittle interfaces and recurring integration problems so that architecture teams can make informed decisions, and improving overall integration quality by reducing defects and increasing end-to-end test readiness.
This is a hands-on technical role requiring deep expertise in systems integration, autonomous systems, and real-time software. You will travel periodically to support lab, field, and flight-test events.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, robotics, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience developing or integrating planning, controls, or autonomy decision-making software
- Strong production software engineering skills in modern C++ and Python
- Hands-on experience integrating software with robotic or autonomous hardware, including deployment, interfaces, telemetry, and lab or field debugging
- Experience with software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testing and automated system-level tests
- Experience developing and debugging software on Linux
- Strong systems-debugging skills across configuration, software, network, timing, and hardware boundaries
- Ability to write maintainable tests and tools for distributed or real-time systems
- Strong technical communication and ability to work effectively with engineers from multiple disciplines
- Ability to travel periodically and support lab, field, or flight-test events outside normal working hours
PREFERRED:
- Experience integrating across multiple autonomy domains (perception, state estimation, planning, controls, simulation, communications, vehicle interfaces)
- Experience supporting aircraft integration or flight-test readiness
- Experience with robotics middleware, vehicle protocols (MAVLink), or integration adapters
- Experience designing repeatable, diagnosable end-to-end test environments for complex autonomous systems
- Experience with configuration-driven systems, dependency compatibility, observability, or automated test orchestration
- Experience delivering software for fielded, real-time, safety-critical, or resource-constrained systems
- Track record of leading ambiguous technical investigations or mentoring engineers through complex integration work
