Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities - Space

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.

About the Role

Focusing on the space portfolio, you’ll be creating autonomy capabilities for satellites and missile defense applications that span large-scale distributed optimization, automated tasking and scheduling, track fusion, RPO operations, and space vehicle motion/behavior planning. In many of these applications, you’ll have the opportunity to build capabilities from the ground up and be the first to integrate them onto new platforms. You’ll traditionally start with shorter-term R&D efforts or aligned customer programs but with the intent that successful efforts will grow into larger, multi-year programs.

As a Sr Staff Engineer, you will lead the technical direction for the portfolio, driving the evolution of autonomy capabilities and architectures across multiple programs. At this level, you’ll combine your deep technical expertise and systems-level thinking to not only provide capabilities that meet the needs of the now, but to anticipate the needs of the future to ensure long-term portfolio success. You’ll take an active role in mentoring engineers across the organization and be a key expert that leadership leans on for decomposing ambiguous customer needs into tangible design approaches.

Responsibilities

• Multi-Objective Optimization – Use advanced optimization strategies to perform large-scale distributed decision making, task allocation, and resource scheduling in multi-satellite coordinated missions.
• Weapons Target Assignment – Employ cutting-edge approaches for weapons target assignment and motion planning for fleets of space vehicles and interceptors that have critical roles in our national defense.
• Advance the State of the Art – Pioneer advanced topics in low-SWaP optimal control, tactical behavior management in cooperative and adversarial contexts, and information-aware planning.
• Rigorous Software Development – Develop high-performance software modules that are well-tested, have clear interfaces and span-of-control, and are ready for mid-to-high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) insertions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration – Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms.
• Deployment & Test Support – Deploy autonomy capabilities to real space vehicles, supporting analysis of mission logs to verify software performance and validate system operational effect.
• R&D and Road-mapping – Contribute to autonomy roadmaps by researching and prototyping new algorithms, identifying tactical capability gaps, and proposing novel solutions that advance Shield AI’s mission.

Members of this team typically travel around 10-15% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, and flight integration events).

Requirements

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years and a Master’s degree; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as C++ and Python, and familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS).
• Significant background in robotics technologies related to motion planning, behavior modeling, decision-making, or autonomous system design.
• Significant experience with unmanned system technologies and accompanying algorithms (ideally in the space domain specifically).
• Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for testing and validation.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and optimize system performance.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in multiple aerospace domains (e.g., air, land, sea, space).
• Experience across a breadth of methodologies from classical control through optimization and applied ML/RL.
• Background in collaborative behaviors and swarm robotics.
• Familiarity with domain-relevant DoD or government programs.
• Hands-on experience supporting integration events, customer demos, and/or live exercises.

Pay

$220,800 - $331,200 a year.

Benefits

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.