Staff Engineer, Software Certification Implementation (R4371)
Shield AI
San Diego, CA, USA
USD 150k-220k / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 7, 2026
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With nine offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the 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:
The Software Certification Implementation Engineer is responsible for operationalizing DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516C aligned software development within the Hivemind SDK. This role translates certification plans and standards into practical workflows, tooling, and automation that integrate with fast-paced development environments. You will work hands-on with Systems and Software teams to implement requirements management, configuration control, verification, and traceability practices that generate certifiable evidence as part of normal development. The role will include establishing the workflow mechanisms and working within those mechanisms alongside the development teams. The role focuses on execution and enablement rather than policy writing or auditing. Success in this role directly accelerates certification readiness while preserving engineering velocity.
What you'll do:
- Configure and integrate requirements management, configuration management, static analysis, and test tools
- Adapt CI/CD pipelines to automatically capture verification results and certification evidence
- Establish and maintain bidirectional traceability between requirements, code, and tests
- Build and manage repositories for verification data, review records, and compliance artifacts
- Partner directly with engineering teams to pilot and refine assured software practices
- Troubleshoot gaps between development workflows and certification requirements
- Identify opportunities for automation to reduce manual compliance burden
- Provide feedback to the Software Assurance Lead to improve standards and implementation guidance
- Implement DO-178C-aligned workflows, templates, checklists, and job aids based on approved plans and standards
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
- 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering, systems engineering, or software assurance in regulated or safety-critical environments
- Hands-on experience implementing software assurance or certification processes (e.g., DO-178C, MIL-HDBK-516C, DO-254, ISO 26262, IEC 61508, or similar) on active development programs
- Experience integrating static analysis, coding standards, and test frameworks into development or CI/CD workflows
- Experience building and maintaining bidirectional traceability between requirements, software, and tests
- Ability to independently translate high-level standards or plans into executable workflows, templates, and tooling
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain assurance concepts to non-experts
Preferred qualifications:
- Practical experience configuring and using requirements management tools (e.g., DOORS, Jama)
- Experience establishing and maintaining configuration management workflows using modern version control systems (e.g., Git)
- Experience configuring and administering Jira Projects
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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.
150000 - 220000 USD a year