Senior Engineer, Safety-Critical Software (R5788)
San Diego, CA, USA
Posted on Sep 27, 2026
Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and 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:
Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to help design, develop, and integrate a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for a suite of core products and capabilities that brings resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments. The RTA product that the Foundations team develops is a real-time safety capability that helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge.
As a member of the Foundations team, you will be responsible for C++ software development, integration of reusable safety capabilities into production systems, defining clean interfaces and tests, and turn safety-critical designs into reliable software that can fly, including support for X-BAT, Shield AI's flagship Group 5 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) UAV.
What you'll do:
- Develop, integrate, and test configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) components that monitor autonomy behavior and support safe operation across representative platforms and scenarios.
- Adapt reusable C++ safety capabilities into production runtime components, including interface integration, configuration wiring, and unit, component, and integration tests.
- Implement real-time C++ code at the boundary between mission autonomy, high-assurance middleware, and flight-control interfaces.
- Integrate safety-critical software with aircraft hardware for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and flight-test campaigns, scaling from single-aircraft test points to multi-agent collaborative CONOPS.
- Strengthen engineering evidence through CI, static and dynamic analysis, focused code reviews, software documentation, software designs, ICDs, system models, test results, and traceability artifacts.
- Share safe software practices through code reviews, design discussions, and clear technical write-ups.
Required qualifications:
- Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 4 years with a Master’s degree; or 2 year with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
- Strong C++ development experience, including modern C++, testing, debugging, and performance-aware design.
- Experience building software for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or similarly constrained systems.
- Experience integrating software with hardware, simulation, Hardware in the Loop (HIL), or production-like test environments and diagnosing reliability or performance issues.
- Familiarity with C++ software design patterns and the ability to work effectively within an existing architecture.
- Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices such as CI/CD and test-focused development.
- Ability to write clear technical documentation and collaborate across software, systems, test, and platform teams.
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with autonomy middleware, interface definitions, Python-based configuration tooling, CMake, Conan, or reusable C++ library integration.
- Familiarity with high-reliability or safety-critical development practices, such as static analysis, coding standards, traceability, and requirements-based testing.
- Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards such as MISRA C++ or JSF AV C++.
- Hands-on experience with airworthiness or software assurance frameworks such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C, or equivalent safety standards.
- Experience taking a software component through verification, qualification, or certification evidence review.
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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.
160000 - 250000 USD a year