Sr. Staff Engineer, Perception Software (R3740)
Shield AI
San Diego, CA, USA · Oregon, USA · San Diego, CA, USA
Posted on Aug 23, 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.
Job Description:
As a senior member within the Hivemind perception team, you will join an ambitious effort to bring autonomy to the world through the rapid design, development, integration, test, and deployment of extensible software solutions to enable GPS-denied navigation, computer vision, object detection & tracking, and sensor fusion on autonomous platforms. You will bring a deep understanding of optimal state estimation, computer vision, sensor integration, data fusion, statistical inference, and dynamics modeling as well as a wealth of professional experience developing software using modern C++ (11 or greater) to this role.
What you'll do:
- Enhance the perception capabilities offered in the Hivemind Software Development Kit (SDK) product
- Serve as the technical conscience of one or more core disciplines within the field of robot perception or localization
- Develop state of the art algorithms relevant to GPS-denied navigation, SLAM, object detection & tracking, and sensor fusion across several operational domains (air, land, maritime, space)
- Write production-quality software in C++ that will be deployed to high-reliability UAS’s, ensuring robustness, efficiency, and scalability.
- Develop and maintain comprehensive unit, integration, and system tests to validate your software
- Lead the planning and execution of design reviews to introduce new perception capabilities into the Hivemind SDK product
- Create and enhance sensor models within a state-of-the-art simulation environment
- Elevate the performance of high-caliber, agile scrum teams by driving clarity and technical rigor into their feature delivery processes
- Mentor and guide peers and less experienced engineers, fostering technical excellence and high standards across the team
- Work in a fast-paced, collaborative, continuous development environment, enhancing analysis and performance benchmarking capabilities
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years with a Master’s degree; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- 5+ years of active software development experience using modern versions of C++ (11 or above)
- Proven expertise in object-oriented software design principles and their practical implementation
- Experience with robotics perception and localization algorithms and frameworks, including object detection and tracking, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), optimal state estimation (KF, EKF, UKF, factor graphs), and sensor fusion
- Strong Git and Linux development skills along with modern software development practices (e.g., CI/CD, test-driven development)
- A track record of technical leadership, with the ability to set and maintain high standards, guide teams through complex technical challenges, and collaborate effectively across multiple teams
- Demonstrated track record of delivering high-quality software to meet product design requirements under accelerated delivery schedules
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience working with or developing software under DO-178C or similar safety-critical software standards
- Experience modeling and integrating sensors related to perception and localization with production software (E.g., IMUs, barometers, magnetometers, RGB cameras, infrared sensors, radars, ladars, etc.)
- A strong record of technical leadership supporting product-oriented R&D efforts relevant to autonomy, aerospace, military, or robotics applications
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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.