Staff Software Engineer, Network Emulation & Simulation (R3792)
Shield AI
Software Engineering
San Diego, CA, USA · San Diego, CA, USA · Oregon, USA
Posted on Jun 21, 2025
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Boston, Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn,X, YouTubeand Instagram.
Shield AI is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to lead the design and development of network emulation capabilities within our simulation environment.
As part of the Hivemind Foundations team, you’ll be responsible for creating radio models to emulate networking behavior that include dynamic routing effects, environmental interference, and signal degradation. This capability will enable realistic evaluation of autonomy performance under contested and degraded network conditions and will be used across internal simulation environments, autonomy development loops, by test and QA teams for validation, and by external customers for mission rehearsal and evaluation. This role sits at the intersection of simulation, networking, and RF systems, and is critical to our ability to field robust autonomous systems in real-world operational environments.
What you'll do:
- Lead the architecture and development of the network emulation layer within the simulation stack.
- Design, implement, and tune models for routing, environmental interference, noise, and radio signal characteristics.
- Evaluate and integrate third-party or open-source network emulation tools where appropriate.
- Collaborate closely with autonomy, comms, and systems simulation teams to define and integrate realistic network conditions into simulation loops.
- When not focused on simulation work, help design and build the EdgeOS Communications network library stack used in production systems.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 7 years and a Master’s degree; or 5 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Proficient with C++ 11 or newer in a production environment.
- Experience in network emulation or network simulation tools (e.g., ns-3, EMANE, CORE, Mininet, or custom-built systems).
- Understanding of IP networking fundamentals, including TCP/UDP, routing, QoS, etc.
- Proven track record of end-to-end delivery of technical projects with high autonomy
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience modeling RF radios.
- Familiarity with C++17 or newer standards.
- Prior experience working with distributed simulation environments or large-scale simulation frameworks.
- Knowledge of Conan and CMake build systems.
#LC
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.