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.
Shield AI's Hivemind Detection, Tracking, and Mapping (DTM) team develops perception capabilities that allow autonomous systems to understand objects, motion, sensors, and terrain across air, maritime, and ground domains. We are seeking a Staff Engineer to develop these capabilities from algorithms and production C++ libraries through integration, verification, and delivery in the Hivemind SDK.
This is a full-stack perception product-development role. You will bring depth in at least one core area such as object detection, object tracking, computer vision, image processing, sensor modeling, or sensor fusion, and work comfortably across adjacent parts of the stack. You will help turn prototypes, research, and partner-developed technology into reusable, configurable, well-tested product capabilities.
Design and implement production perception capabilities in modern C++, with emphasis on clear interfaces, correctness, performance, maintainability, and automated test coverage.
Own features across the development lifecycle: clarify requirements, evaluate technical approaches, develop algorithms and libraries, integrate them into the Pilot runtime, and carry them through SDK validation, documentation, and release readiness.
Contribute deep technical judgment in one or more DTM areas, including object detection, object tracking, computer vision, image processing, sensor and measurement modeling, mapping, or multi-sensor fusion.
Work across adjacent layers such as sensor data contracts, coordinate frames, timing, configuration, simulation, replay, analyzers, embedded deployment, and end-to-end perception workflows.
Diagnose difficult system behavior using source code, logs, recorded sensor data, simulation, and focused experiments; drive issues from symptom through root cause, corrective action, and regression coverage.
Participate in design reviews and code reviews, communicate technical tradeoffs concisely, mentor other engineers, and help improve the architecture and engineering practices of the DTM stack.
Use modern AI-assisted engineering tools effectively while remaining accountable for the design, technical accuracy, security, test coverage, and reviewability of the resulting work.
Evaluate how emerging foundation-model capabilities may strengthen detection, tracking, image understanding, simulation, and perception workflows, and help identify practical paths from promising technology to dependable product capability.
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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.
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.
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.
