{"id":118860,"url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285","title":"Engineer, Software- open level (R5285)","company":{"id":50,"name":"Shield AI","domain":"shield.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/shield-ai","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":62,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.806,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":76,"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States","San Diego, United States","Dallas, United States","San Mateo, United States","United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":190000,"max":330000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":330000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Commander.js","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Human-in-the-Loop","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"React.js","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"TRL","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false},{"name":"WebSockets","optional":false},{"name":"Electron","optional":true},{"name":"Node JS","optional":true},{"name":"Playwright","optional":true},{"name":"Transformers","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-01T00:47:19Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-01","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T06:49:48Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":110,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":110},"description":"Job Description:\nThe Special Projects team at Shield AI is an elite force within the office of the CTO. It consists of a group of very senior (L5-L8) and highly experienced software engineering experts from diverse fields (aerospace, robotics, cloud infrastructure, game development, interactive media design, ...). The charter of this group is to steer technology development towards strategic alignment with the CTO’s vision, through tactical insertion into teams and technologies across the organization. Individuals within this team make direct and at times forward-sprinting contributions to all three pillars of Hivemind, Shield AI’s software ecosystem for developing and deploying resilient intelligent teaming for aircrafts. Hivemind consists of four products: EdgeOS (C++ based high-performance middleware for autonomy development), Pilot (autonomy for the edge built atop EdgeOS; a models-based, modular and open architecture C++ codebase), Forge (Shield AI's AI Factory for the design, development, and testing of Hivemind Edge systems; a service-oriented architecture leveraged through an SDK, CLI, and web portal; a Go, Python, Typescript codebase), Commander (Software and hardware to support rich human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop interactions with the Hivemind; a C++-based back-end for interaction with Pilot; and a web-application UI for mission planning, command and control by operators implemented in a Typescript/React codebase).\nThe Special Projects team is chartered to operate effectively within ambiguity. While this team does not own any software products, it tactically and strategically impacts the development of all foundational Hivemind products and leverages those technologies to rapidly deliver low-TRL solutions. This work happens shoulder-to-shoulder with the product teams in some cases, and in a forward-sprinting manner within the Special Projects team in other cases. The result is direct contribution to products in the former case, and development of reference implementations in the latter. The Special Projects team also functions as a pipeline for product and solution engineering teams across the organization. Individuals who enter the Special Projects team rapidly gain depth and breadth in their understanding of the Hivemind software ecosystem. This positions them well for leading technology development effort across the product and solution organization.\nWhat you'll do:\nDesign and prototype generative AI experience focused on accelerating autonomy development\nWork closely with members of the Office of the CTO to crystallize the vision of the Hivemind product and its documentation\nLead the user experience design of Hivemind Generative AI\nWork closely with the technical leads of Hivemind Commander (mission planning, command and control, air-ground communications) and Hivemind Design (configurations, test and evaluation, rehearsal, analysis) to enhance the user experience of their products\nConduct user research to understand user personae and their needs\nInvestigate competing products and their user experiences, synthesize findings to present to engineering and product leadership\nRequired qualifications:\n15+ years experience developing large, production quality software systems. \nExcellent grasp of software development and coding principles with high productivity in a mainstream language (e.g. Typescript, C++, Go, Python, Rust, etc.). \nStrong knowledge of modern software engineering best practices; Experience with Git and code management tools; Good software hygiene regarding code documentation, unit testing, bug tracking. \n5+ years of experience with React/Node/Typescript/Javascript development.\n5+ years of experience with Web applications development (\"Front-End\" or \"Full-stack\").\nDeep understanding full-stack web development (Document-Object Model (DOM), browser APIs, standards, semantics, Websockets, HTTP Streaming and Server-Sent Events (SSE), Client and UI state management; best practises and strategies, as they apply to React-based rendering, Advanced SPA routing, URL-based state persistence,sharing mechanisms, Seamless content loading states and progressive rendering techniques.)\nMulti-modal input handling (text, files, images, audio). Experience with client-side LLM Context Management\nFluid intelligence that allows one to operate effectively in sometimes ambiguous conditions, while finding opportunities to drive technical efforts and force multiply. \nExperience with Linux, Docker, and CI/CD environments. \nHands-on experience with a major cloud platform (Azure, GCP, AWS). \n This role requires travel to a Shield AI location 1-3 times per quarter\nPreferred qualifications:\nExperience with geospatial data and WebGL. \nExperience with Playwright UI testing\nExperience with Electron (or similar). \nBuilding debugging/inspection UIs for generative AI systems\nExperience with user experience design video games\nExperience designing for “Low Code” or “No Code” systems\nExperience and/or comfort reading C++ and/or Python and/or Typescript","description_format":"text","description_chars":5039,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":15,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Military Drones","Defense Manufacturing","Defense AI","Drone AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-07-01T00:47:19Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":2,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":132500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":1}],"liveness":{"score":23,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.522,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":110,"expected_fill_days":76,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":330000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T09:27:08Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":6541,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":50},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=50"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fshield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fshield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fshield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/shield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fshield-ai-principal-engineer-software-r5285"}]}