Washington, District of Columbia, United States · On-site
$220k–$330k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: People Management, C++, Linux, Embedded Systems, Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Dallas, Texas, United States · On-site
$120k–$190k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Electromechanical Systems, Manufacturing Engineering, DFM/DFA, Root Cause Analysis, Motion Control
Dallas, Texas, United States · On-site
$120k–$190k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical Systems, DFM/DFA, Wiring Harnesses, PCBA Assembly
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$150k–$230k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: C++, Qt/QML, QGroundControl, Full-stack Development, Networked Systems
Dallas, Texas, United States · On-site
$120k–$190k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Manufacturing Integration, DFM/DFA, Systems Integration, Root Cause Analysis, Production Scaling
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$220k–$330k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: People Management, C++, Linux, Embedded Systems, Autonomous Systems
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$110k–$160k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Finite Element Analysis, Composite Materials, Mechanical Testing, Aircraft Loads Analysis, Structural Analysis
Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands · On-site
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 Aec…
Skills: Business Development, Account Management, Capture Strategy, Defense Acquisition, Government Procurement
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$160k–$240k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Security Engineering, Platform Security, Infrastructure-as-Code, DevSecOps, Policy-as-Code
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$170k–$260k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Program Management, Software Test Engineering, Release Management, Test Automation, Jira
Washington, District of Columbia, United States · On-site
$100k–$150k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Industrial Security Management, NISPOM Compliance, DCSA Regulations, Personnel Security, DISS
Kyiv, Ukraine · On-site
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 Aec…
Skills: UAS Operation, ISR, Mission Planning, Flight Operations, Tactical Operations
Dallas, Texas, United States · On-site
$140k–$210k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Aircraft Testing, Test Planning, UAV/UAS Systems, System Integration, Flight Test Execution
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$185k–$278k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Mechanical Design, Avionics Systems, CAD Software, Finite Element Analysis, Thermal Management
Washington, District of Columbia, United States · On-site
$220k–$330k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Software Architecture, Systems Engineering, C#, TypeScript, Java
San Diego, California, United States · On-site
$190k–$280k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Aerostructures Design, Composite Materials, Metallic Design, Structural Analysis, Aircraft Loads
Dallas, Texas, United States · On-site
$130k–$190k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Financial Modeling, Forecasting, Variance Analysis, Business Partnering, Anaplan
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia · On-site
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 Aec…
Skills: Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Convolutional Neural Networks, Transformers, PyTorch
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia · On-site
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 Aec…
Skills: C++, Linux, Embedded Systems, NVIDIA Jetson, ARM Architecture
San Diego, California, United States · Remote OK
$210k–$320k/yr
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 Aec…
Skills: Aerospace Structural Engineering, Composite Materials, Metallic Design, Structural Analysis, Aircraft Integration
Washington, District of Columbia, United States • On-site
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Lead a team of autonomy engineers in developing and integrating Hivemind software for V-BAT and X-BAT unmanned aircraft. Manage the end-to-end delivery of autonomy capabilities from simulation to live field exercises while partnering closely with the aircraft hardware team.
Requires a degree in CS, EE, ME, or Aerospace with at least 7 years of experience and 2+ years of direct people management. Must be proficient in C++, Linux, and embedded systems, with a track record of working with Group 3 unmanned aircraft and the ability to obtain a Secret clearance.
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.
The Autonomous Pilot Integration team for expeditionary platforms builds autonomy solutions for V-BAT — an unmanned aircraft operating in expeditionary environments for ISR, target acquisition, communications, and multi-agent missions. The team also builds autonomy for X-BAT, a new platform under development by the aircraft team; for X-BAT, the team builds on top of the existing mission autonomy solution from the Strategic Systems (ACP) portfolio and works closely with the aircraft team on the flight-autonomy interface. We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., ViDAR, ATR), and the HivemindSDK to develop the autonomy software that runs on these platforms, then integrate, validate, and field it on the real hardware — for U.S. and international defense customers. Our engineers write new autonomy code — such as mission behaviors, platform-specific control (including VTOL transitions), multi-agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy — and own it end-to-end from software-in-the-loop, to hardware-in-the-loop, to vehicle-in-the-loop, to live test exercise.
In this role, you'll lead a team of autonomy engineers focused primarily on Hivemind on V-BAT, with growing scope on Hivemind on X-BAT — owning their delivery, their growth, and the technical health of your area. A core part of the job is growing the team: hiring strong engineers, mentoring them through hard technical work, and shaping their career development. You'll stay technically active — writing code where it best serves the team, staying close to the integration work, making sound technical decisions, and leading them through the design, development, and delivery of a major capability or program. A defining part of this role is working in extreme partnership with the aircraft team that builds and maintains V-BAT and X-BAT — the relationship and tight coordination with them is critical to your team's success. You'll also partner closely with the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams, feature crews, customer/program offices, the operator community that flies V-BAT today, and prospective customers for X-BAT as the new platform matures. This portfolio has a strong fielded-operator culture — long-endurance ISR missions, customer-driven workflow iteration, and demanding live exercises across multiple U.S. and international services — and you'll set the pace for your team accordingly.
\nWhat you'll do:#LI-ED1
#LD
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.
Autonomy for the world.
Founded in 2015, 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.
Offices: 600 W Broadway, Ste 600, San Diego, California 92101, US · 16240 Gateway Path, Suite 100, Frisco, Texas 75033, US · 2450 Crystal Dr, Ste 200, Arlington, Virginia 22202, US · Abu Dhabi Global Market, Abu Dhabi, AE · Melbourne, AU
Autonomy for the world.
Founded in 2015, 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.
Offices: 600 W Broadway, Ste 600, San Diego, California 92101, US · 16240 Gateway Path, Suite 100, Frisco, Texas 75033, US · 2450 Crystal Dr, Ste 200, Arlington, Virginia 22202, US · Abu Dhabi Global Market, Abu Dhabi, AE · Melbourne, AU
