Senior Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Weapons
Role overview
Job description
Technical Strategy & Portfolio Leadership – Define the long-term technical direction for the Launched Effects portfolio; drive common integration patterns, architecture, and engineering strategy that enable scalable fleet operations across current and future programs.
Develop & Field Autonomy – Guide the development and integration of mission autonomy, platform interfaces, executive autonomy, multi-agent coordination, and fleet-scale deployment capabilities while ensuring successful operational delivery across launched effects programs.
Collaboration Across Teams & Partners – Build strong technical partnerships across the Autonomy Capabilities team, Perception team, feature crews, autopilot vendors, C2 providers, customer organizations, and engineering leadership; influence architecture and technical direction beyond the portfolio.
Design & Documentation – Lead cross-functional architecture reviews, interface standards, ICDs, and post-mortems while raising engineering rigor and technical consistency across multiple organizations.
Mentorship & Organizational Growth – Mentor Staff and Senior engineers, develop future technical leaders, contribute to engineering standards and leveling, and partner with managers on senior hiring.
Pre-deployment Preparation – Guide Capability Release planning, fleet-scale deployment strategies, mission validation, and operational readiness across multiple programs.
On-site Test & Mission Support – Provide senior technical leadership during critical flight tests, customer demonstrations, and operational exercises where deep systems integration expertise is required.
Hardware/Software Debugging – Lead resolution of the organization's most complex autonomy integration challenges spanning software, embedded systems, networking, platform interfaces, and operational environments.
Mission Data & Debrief Support – Drive post-mission analysis, identify systemic improvements, and influence long-term technical investments based on operational learnings.
Continuous Improvement – Drive organization-wide improvements to engineering processes, testing infrastructure, integration workflows, developer experience, and mission reliability.
C2 Interoperability & Standards – Define technical strategy for command-and-control interoperability; shape interface evolution with internal and external stakeholders while driving adoption of common message and open-systems standards (e.g., UCI, OMS, MOSA, WOSA, TAK/CoT).
Hiring & Developing Technical Talent – Define the technical hiring bar for senior engineering roles, partner with engineering managers on long-term staffing strategy, and help grow the organization's technical capabilities.
Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 10–20% of the year to different office locations, customer sites, operator training events, flight tests, and integration exercises.
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BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent practical experience.
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Typically requires 10+ years of relevant experience.
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Expert-level C++ and Linux systems development experience.
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Demonstrated experience defining technical strategy across multiple engineering teams or programs.
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Proven track record influencing architecture and solving highly complex autonomy integration challenges.
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Experience mentoring senior engineers and driving engineering excellence across an organization.
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Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
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Extensive experience with launched effects, autonomous systems, or distributed robotic platforms.
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Experience defining autopilot integration strategies and multi-agent autonomy architectures.
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Experience leading fleet-scale or disconnected operational deployments.
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Experience with military operational testing and international defense customers.
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Experience with UCI, OMS, MOSA, WOSA, TAK/CoT, or similar open architectures.
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Experience shaping engineering practices across multiple teams or organizations.
About this listing
- Source: Shield AI's official careers site (via Lever) · last confirmed on the source 29 Oct 2026
- Posted 21 Jul 2026
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What they are looking for
Skills & requirements
Qualification
Typically requires 10+ years of relevant experience
Department · Hivemind Solutions Division
Hiring company
Shield AI
View the company profile, current openings and hiring details.
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