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Shield AI is seeking a Staff Engineer for Perception Software to design and implement production perception capabilities for autonomous systems supporting defense operations. You will own features across the full development lifecycle—from requirements clarification through algorithm development, integration into the Pilot runtime, SDK validation, documentation, and release readiness.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and implement production perception in modern C++, emphasizing clear interfaces, correctness, performance, maintainability, and automated test coverage
- Contribute deep technical expertise in one or more areas: object detection, object tracking, computer vision, image processing, sensor modeling, mapping, or multi-sensor fusion
- Work across adjacent technical layers including sensor data contracts, coordinate frames, timing, configuration, simulation, replay, analyzers, embedded deployment, and end-to-end perception workflows
- Diagnose complex system behavior using source code, logs, recorded sensor data, simulation, and focused experiments; drive issues from symptom through root cause and corrective action
- Participate in design and code reviews, mentor other engineers, and help improve the architecture and engineering practices of the perception stack
- Evaluate how emerging foundation-model capabilities may strengthen detection, tracking, image understanding, and perception workflows
- Use modern AI-assisted engineering tools effectively while remaining accountable for design, technical accuracy, security, test coverage, and code reviewability
Required qualifications include significant professional experience developing production C++ software for robotics, autonomy, perception, real-time systems, or complex technical products; deep expertise in at least one relevant technical area; demonstrated ability to deliver maintainable software with clear interfaces, tests, and documentation; strong debugging and systems-thinking skills; proficiency with Python for technical analysis and experimentation; experience collaborating across teams and disciplines; and familiarity with modern AI-assisted development tools.
Preferred qualifications include experience with autonomous aircraft, maritime systems, ground robots, or defense applications; multi-target tracking, data association, or estimation; EO/IR imagery, video pipelines, radar, LiDAR, or sensor calibration; embedded Linux or GPU compute environments; simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing; modern C++ build and CI systems; and practical experience with vision foundation models or vision-language models.
This is a hybrid role based at Shield AI's San Diego headquarters with three days per week in-office as baseline. Relocation candidates are encouraged to apply.
