Senior Staff Engineer, Software Autonomy (R5125)

Job Description:

The Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy will function as a hands on technical lead / subject matter expert and collaborate with Shield AI teammates / customers to build edge-AI and autonomy software for platforms across sea, air, and space. This role involves working closely with customers to understand their requirements, writing code, developing new capabilities and ensuring successful software/hardware integration, and mentoring teammates.

What you'll do:

• Examples of Projects You will Work On:
• Autonomous teaming drones.
• Teaming between helicopters and drones.
• Autonomy on Robodogs.
• AI Pilots for Fighter Jets
• and more!
• Learn Hivemind: Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise Autonomy Software Development Kit.
• 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.
• Hybrid Autonomy Integration - Work at the intersection of classical autonomy and machine learning, blending rule-based systems with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning to achieve robust, adaptive behavior.
• Hardware Software Integration:
• 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.
• Mission Data Analysis - Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures, optimize behavior models, and inform iterative development.
• R&D and Roadmapping - Contribute to the autonomy roadmap by researching and prototyping new algorithms, identifying tactical capability gaps, and proposing novel solutions that advance Shield AI’s mission.
• Program Support & Adaptation - Support defense-focused programs and customer needs by adapting autonomy solutions to evolving mission sets, compliance requirements, and operational feedback.
• Handover / Training: Provide software handover and training to customers for their autonomy development efforts.
• Documentation: Develop and maintain technical documentation for customer as well as internal use.
• Travel Requirement - Members of this team typically travel around 10-15% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, and flight integration events).Travel to and stay at customer sites as required for deployment / training / flight testing etc. (~30% travel).

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s and Masters degree in Aerospace, AI, Computer Science, Robotics or a related engineering field.
• 12+ years of experience of industry experience
• Ability to travel and stay deployed at customer sites across India/Asia.
• 3+ years of experience hands on writing software for autonomy/robotics applications.
• 2+ years of experience working in a startup environment.
• Strong technical background in software engineering.
• Strong proficiency in writing modern C++ code.
• Intermediate proficiency in writing Python code.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability converse fluently in Hindi and English.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience in the defense aviation or robotics industry.
• Ability to travel to USA for up to 3 months at a time for training.