Senior Engineer, Systems Test (R4472)
Shield AI
Washington, DC, USA
USD 110k-170k / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 31, 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 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:
We’re seeking a Engineer II or Senior Integration & Test Engineer (Software & Simulation Focus) to join our DC-based team. In this role, you’ll focus on simulation-driven testing, automation, documentation, and software quality assurance for Hivemind autonomy. You’ll build and execute comprehensive test frameworks and methodologies to ensure our autonomy stack performs reliably across simulated and real-world mission conditions.
Shield AI is scaling and growing rapidly—the ideal candidate will demonstrate adaptability, a growth mindset, and a willingness to learn new technologies and methodologies quickly in a fast-paced, evolving environment. This is an opportunity to contribute to something truly remarkable—advancing autonomy that is changing the world—while thriving in a mission-driven, collaborative, and high-performance culture.
What you'll do:
- Develop automated regression, integration, and system-level tests to ensure Hivemind software quality and stability across releases.
- Identify, reproduce, and diagnose software issues—collaborating closely with development teams to drive fixes and improvements.
- Create and execute test plans and documentation for autonomy software in simulated environments, ensuring mission and safety requirements are met.
- Design, implement, and maintain simulation-based test frameworks to validate Hivemind autonomy behavior and performance.
- Build tools and utilities in Python to automate testing, data processing, and analysis workflows.
- Develop test harnesses and data validation tools for Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) / Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) / Vehicle-in-the-Loop (VIL) and simulation environments.
- Contribute to the definition of testing methodologies, metrics, and performance benchmarks for autonomy software validation.
- Support the scaling and reliability of simulation infrastructure used for large-scale software validation.
- Maintain detailed and accurate test documentation, ensuring traceability and knowledge sharing across teams.
- Work with developers to integrate test coverage directly into the development pipeline (CI/CD).
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical field.
- 3–5 years of experience in software integration, testing, or quality assurance, preferably in robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems.
- Proficiency in Python for test automation, scripting, and data analysis.
- Experience with simulation environments (e.g., Gazebo, Unreal, or custom simulation frameworks) and test automation tools.
- Strong understanding of software testing principles, including integration, regression, and system-level validation.
- Familiarity with continuous integration (CI/CD) and test pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI, Jenkins).
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and debugging skills.
- Strong collaboration and communication skills with software and systems teams.
- Adaptability, growth mindset, and willingness to learn new technologies quickly in a fast-paced, scaling environment.
- Self-starter with a sense of urgency, motivation, and comfort operating in ambiguity.
- U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a SECRET clearance.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience testing autonomous systems, robotics software, or flight autonomy algorithms.
- Familiarity with C++ and software/hardware integration concepts.
- Experience with HIL or VIL test environments.
- Exposure to machine learning or AI-driven autonomy systems.
- Background in simulation infrastructure design, distributed testing, or test data management.
- Quality Assurance (QA) experience, including process definition, metrics, and validation tracking.
- Experience with aerospace, defense, or mission-critical software.
- Active SECRET clearance preferred.
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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.
110000 - 170000 USD a year