Senior Staff Engineer, Software Autonomy (R5125)

Job Description:

What you'll do:

Examples of Projects You will Work On: 
Autonomous teaming drones.
Teaming between helicopters and drones.
Autonomy on Robodogs.
AI Pilots for Fighter Jets
and more!
Learn Hivemind: Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise Autonomy Software Development Kit.
Tactical Autonomy Design – Design tactical autonomy algorithms to enable unmanned aircraft to perform complex missions across air, land, and sea domains with minimal human supervision.
High-Performance Software Development – Develop high-performance software modules that incorporate planning, decision-making, and behavior execution strategies for dynamic and adversarial environments.
Behavior Architecture Implementation – Implement and test behavior architectures that enable multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios.
Hybrid Autonomy Integration – Work at the intersection of classical autonomy and machine learning, blending rule-based systems with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning to achieve robust, adaptive behavior.
Hardware Software Integration:
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 & Field Testing – Deploy autonomy capabilities to real platforms and participate in field tests and flight demos, validating performance in operationally relevant conditions.
Mission Data Analysis – Analyze mission logs and performance data to diagnose failures, optimize behavior models, and inform iterative development.
R&D and Roadmapping – Contribute to the autonomy roadmap by researching and prototyping new algorithms, identifying tactical capability gaps, and proposing novel solutions that advance Shield AI’s mission.
Program Support & Adaptation – Support defense-focused programs and customer needs by adapting autonomy solutions to evolving mission sets, compliance requirements, and operational feedback.
Handover / Training: Provide software handover and training to customers for their autonomy development efforts.
Documentation: Develop and maintain technical documentation for customer as well as internal use.
Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 10-15% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, and flight integration events).Travel to and stay at customer sites as required for deployment / training / flight testing etc. (~30% travel).

Required qualifications:

Bachelor’s and Masters degree in Aerospace, AI, Computer Science, Robotics or a related engineering field. 
12+ years of experience of industry experience
Ability to travel and stay deployed at customer sites across India/Asia.
3+ years of experience hands on writing software for autonomy/robotics applications.
2+ years of experience working in a startup environment. 
Strong technical background in software engineering. 
Strong proficiency in writing modern C++ code. 
Intermediate proficiency in writing Python code. 
Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills. 
Strong communication and interpersonal skills. 
Ability converse fluently in Hindi and English.

Preferred qualifications:

Experience in the defense aviation or robotics industry.  
Ability to travel to USA for up to 3 months at a time for training.