Autonomy & Perception Software Engineer (R5911)

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.

Job Description:

Help build perception software that works beyond the lab. Shield AI’s Perception team builds software that helps autonomous aircraft and vehicles understand their surroundings and make decisions in the real world. We’re looking for an experienced engineer who enjoys solving difficult perception problems and turning those solutions into reliable autonomy capabilities.

You’ll bring depth in an area such as object tracking, classical/ML-based detection, computer vision, optimal state estimation, or sensor fusion. Working alongside autonomy, simulation, platform, and test engineers, you’ll take capabilities from an initial idea through deployment in the Hivemind product.

What you'll do:

• Develop perception algorithms and production software in modern C++.

• Own features from design and implementation through integration, testing, and delivery.

• Investigate system behavior using sensor data, simulation, logs, and focused experiments.

• Collaborate across teams to turn research and customer-driven work into reusable product capabilities.

• Contribute to technical direction, review designs and code, and mentor other engineers.

Required qualifications:

• Experience delivering production C++ software for perception, robotics, autonomy, or a related technical field.

• Strong technical depth in at least one relevant area: detection, tracking, computer vision, image processing, estimation (e.g. Kalman Filtering), or sensor fusion.

• An ability to debug complex systems and build software that others can understand, test, and maintain.

• Comfort using Python or similar tools for experimentation and data analysis.

• Sound technical judgment and a collaborative approach to solving problems.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with

  • real sensors (EO/IR, Radar, LiDAR, IMU)

  • embedded or GPU deployment

  • resource-constrained compute environments

This role can be based in San Diego, San Mateo, Washington, DC, or Orlando, with a hybrid schedule of three days per week in the office.

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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.

Senior Engineer: $165,000-$250,000

Staff Engineer: $200,000-$300,000