Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems.
The Autonomy Capabilities Team develops functionality to automate single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives and acts as a central discipline-aligned focal-point for encouraging consistent usage of technical approaches across business portfolios.
As a Staff Engineer, you will lead the technical delivery of complex autonomy capabilities and demonstrate the ability to operate in significantly more grey space than more junior engineers, helping customers shape their requirements, define technical approaches for the team, and drive technical execution throughout the development process.
Responsibilities:
- Robust Motion Planning – Automate unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and/or unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) maneuvering through advanced motion planning and adherence to safety constraints including keep-out volumes, cooperative and uncooperative vehicles, and depth limitations
- Localization and Tracking – Employ cutting edge approaches for passive and active localization by defining fusion modalities, sensor requirements, and observability-aware maneuvering capabilities to maximize information gleaned from single- or multi-agent sensor networks
- Safe Maritime Operations – Keep vehicle safety as a central focus within autonomous behavior architectures to provide run-time assurance, ensure COLREGS adherence, and build operator trust in advanced mission autonomy
- Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Collaboration – Develop distributed optimization and task allocation approaches for heterogenous teaming in order to accomplish mission objectives by maximally utilizing the diverse capabilities of agents to overall team advantage
- Rigorous Software Development – Develop high-performance software modules that are well-tested, have clear interfaces and span-of-control, and are ready for mid-to-high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) insertions
- Cross-Functional Collaboration – Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and operational test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms
- Deployment & Test Support – Deploy autonomy capabilities to real surface vehicles, supporting integration and demonstration events as well as analysis of mission logs to verify software performance and validate system operational effect
- R&D and Road-mapping – Contribute to autonomy roadmaps by researching and prototyping new algorithms, identifying tactical capability gaps, and proposing novel solutions that advance Shield AI’s mission
Requirements:
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience
- Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Proficiency in programming languages such as C++ and Python, and familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS).
- Significant background in robotics technologies related to motion planning, behavior modeling, decision-making, or autonomous system design.
- Significant experience with unmanned system technologies and accompanying algorithms (ideally in the space domain specifically)
- Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for testing and validation.
- Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and optimize system performance.
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment.
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
