Chief Engineer, Autonomy — Space Domain (R5150)

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Shield AI builds trusted autonomy for national-security space missions. The Chief Engineer, Autonomy — Space Domain is the senior technical authority responsible for defining, delivering, and sustaining autonomy capabilities that convert distributed space, ground, and payload resources into timely, decision-quality data products.

This leader owns the technical vision, system architecture, execution rigor, risk posture, verification strategy, and operational readiness of the space-autonomy solution across its lifecycle: concept development, integration, test, launch/commissioning support where applicable, on-orbit operations, software updates, and mission evolution. The role ensures that autonomy performs reliably across multi-constellation and multi-orbit mission environments, supports resilient operation in constrained or contested conditions, and delivers usable information to mission users at operational tempo.

This is not a research position. This is a position focused on delivering mission-ready autonomy systems that perform in real-world operational environments.

What You'll Do:

• Serve as the senior technical authority for space-domain autonomy, accountable for mission architecture, software/system design, technical execution, product quality, technical risk, verification evidence, and customer technical confidence.

• Define and evolve an autonomy architecture that supports end-to-end tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination across a heterogeneous space enterprise, including satellites, hosted payloads, ground systems, mission applications, communications networks, cloud/edge compute, and external data sources.

• Lead the development of automatic and autonomous behaviors for multi-constellation and/or multi-orbit tasking, including prioritization, scheduling, replanning, resource allocation, coordination, conflict resolution, and response to dynamic mission demands.

• Define technical approaches for autonomously selecting, cueing, configuring, and coordinating collection from all relevant payload classes, as applicable to mission needs, including but not limited to: electro-optical/infrared, AIS, SAR, RF, SIGINT, communications, environmental, navigation, or third-party/partner payload sources.

• Architect and govern hybrid on-board and off-board processing strategies. Establish decision criteria for where inference, data reduction, fusion, storage, prioritization, and dissemination functions execute, accounting for latency, bandwidth, compute, power, thermal constraints, availability, security, mission priority, and degraded communications.

• Lead the technical design of advanced exploitation capabilities, including automated triage, sensor fusion, event detection, object/activity characterization, change detection, anomaly detection, provenance, confidence estimation, and analyst-in-the-loop workflows.

• Own the technical approach for dissemination of mission products: data-format and interface standards, prioritization, routing, timeliness, quality metadata, access control, product traceability, downstream machine-to-machine integration, and human-user delivery.

• Establish coherent autonomy interfaces among spacecraft buses, payloads, avionics, flight software, communications systems, mission planning systems, ground control, cloud/edge infrastructure, data platforms, and customer mission applications.

• Drive technical rigor across system requirements, CONOPS, architecture descriptions, interface-control documents, trade studies, test plans, verification matrices, technical performance measures, and technical baselines.

• Lead autonomy technical readiness for major milestones, including concept and requirements reviews, preliminary and critical design reviews, test-readiness reviews, operational demonstrations, launch-readiness activities where applicable, commissioning, on-orbit operational assessments, and customer acceptance events.

• Define and execute a verification and validation strategy that combines modeling and simulation, digital engineering, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, payload/ground integration, mission rehearsal, operational test, and—in applicable programs—on-orbit validation.

• Identify, quantify, and retire autonomy-specific technical risks, including failure or degradation of sensors and payloads; crosslink or ground-link interruption; incomplete, delayed, conflicting, or deceptive data; resource exhaustion; model uncertainty; interface failures; cyber compromise; and unsafe or unexplainable automated action.

• Partner with product, program, mission operations, security, safety/mission assurance, payload, spacecraft, ground, cloud, and data-engineering leaders to balance mission performance, technical risk, cost, schedule, and customer commitments.

• Serve as a senior technical counterpart for government customers, mission partners, suppliers, and internal executives. Support capture, proposal technical volumes, demonstrations, mission architecture discussions, technical reviews, and customer acceptance.

• Build and mentor a high-performing technical organization that may include staff engineers, autonomy developers, mission planners, data/ML engineers, test engineers, and domain experts.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, aerospace engineering, electrical/computer engineering, systems engineering, applied mathematics, robotics, physics, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.

• 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in autonomy, space systems, aerospace, robotics, mission systems, ISR, satellite operations, distributed systems, or comparable complex technical fields.

• Demonstrated experience as a Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer, Technical Director, Principal/Distinguished Engineer, IPT lead, or equivalent senior technical leader responsible for end-to-end system outcomes.

• Significant experience designing, developing, integrating, testing, and operationalizing software-intensive mission systems with high reliability, mission assurance, or certifiability requirements.

• Demonstrated technical depth in several of the following:

  • Autonomous planning, scheduling, optimization, decision-making, and multi-agent or distributed coordination.

  • Space mission planning, spacecraft or payload operations, satellite ground systems, constellation operations, or hosted-payload architectures.

  • Multi-orbit/multi-constellation tasking and resource management.

  • Embedded, edge, ground, cloud, and hybrid compute architectures.

  • On-board data processing, sensor fusion, payload control, and communication-aware autonomy.

  • ISR, remote sensing, RF, EO/IR, SAR, communications, navigation, or other mission-payload processing and exploitation.

  • Data-product generation, provenance, quality assessment, dissemination, APIs, and enterprise mission-data integration.

  • Systems engineering: requirements, CONOPS, architecture, ICDs, trade studies, verification planning, technical reviews, and risk management.

• Experience leading a multidisciplinary, matrixed engineering organization and influencing technical outcomes across teams without requiring direct reporting control.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to engineers, executives, government customers, operators, and mission partners.

• Experience supporting customer-facing technical work, including proposals, solution architecture, test/demonstration planning, and technical reviews.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with national security, defense, intelligence, civil-government, or commercial-space programs.

• Experience moving mission autonomy from prototype or research environments into sustained operational use.

• Demonstrated experience with operational test, mission rehearsal, launch preparation, satellite commissioning, or on-orbit anomaly response.

• Familiarity with safety/mission-assurance methods, cybersecurity engineering, secure software-development practices, and authorization/compliance processes relevant to space or defense systems.

• Experience establishing a reusable autonomy platform across multiple programs rather than delivering isolated, bespoke solutions.

• Active TS/SCI clearance, or established eligibility to obtain and maintain it, depending on program requirements.

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Full-time regular employee offer package:

Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.