Engineer II, Software Perception (R3554)
Shield AI
Washington, DC, USA
Posted on Jul 2, 2025
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind Enterprise—EdgeOS, Pilot, Commander, and Forge—as well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., 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 and Instagram.
Job Description:
Shield AI is looking for early-career engineers who are excited to grow their skills while working on impactful technologies. As an Engineer II, you will contribute to the development of several core perception capabilities that will advance the state of the art in GPS-denied navigation, object detection, multi-target tracking, and global mapping for applications related to aircraft autonomy. You’ll work on real-world problems in areas like robotics, computer vision, and infrastructure gaining exposure to how advanced technology makes it from prototype to production. This role is ideal for someone early in their career who wants to grow as a developer while collaborating with experienced teammates in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.
What you'll do:
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, production, integration) to help implement core features and workflows across the perception stack
- Design and develop components to enable video processing and ML/DL pipelines with mentoring and technical guidance
- Develop both CPU-only and GPU-accelerated variants using technologies like CUDA, OpenGL, and multi-threaded processing
- Contribute to technical documentation, design reviews, and maintain high code quality.
- Participate in feature planning, including estimation, task breakdown, and sprint delivery.
- Maintain standards and best practices for CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and deployment
- Take ownership of resolving complex integration and deployment issues across our codebase
Required Qualifications:
- 2+ years of experience in modern C++ (C++11or later) in a Linux environment
- Demonstrated experience implementing real-time video/image processing pipelines
- Strong understanding of multithreading, memory management, and performance optimization
- Experience with GPU programming (e.g., CUDA, OpenGL) in production environments
- Proficiency in setting up and maintaining CI/CD workflows for C++ projects
- Strong verbal and written communication
Nice to have:
- Experience working in a startup, fast-paced, or high-growth environment.
- Experience deploying C++ perception software to embedded or airborne platforms
- Familiarity with C++ package management (preferably Conan) and deployment automation
- Experience building software that runs on both x86 and ARM architectures
- Familiarity with GStreamer, FFMpeg, and OpenCV for media handling and image pipelines
- Prior integration experience on high-reliability autonomy, aerospace, or robotics platforms
- Experience working with or developing under DO-178C or similar safety-critical software standards
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.