Engineer II, Software - Autonomous Pilot Integration - New Grad - 6127

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 builds and maintains the reusable core pilot and turns Hivemind SDK, Perception, and Autonomy Capabilities components into working mission solutions for programs and platforms. We develop reusable and mission-specific behaviors, validate autonomy-side interfaces, and work with Integration & Test and platform teams on platform enablement, deployment foundations, and independent system-test evidence.

As an Engineer II, you will own bounded program-specific autonomy changes through implementation, test, and handoff. You will troubleshoot moderately defined integration problems, escalate architecture or safety decisions, and coordinate across teams for the work assigned to you. Senior engineers retain accountability for overall program autonomy design and release readiness.

What you'll do

• Implement and test C++ changes to mission behavior, platform-specific pilot extensions, configuration, and autonomy-side diagnostics.
• Develop and apply supported core pilot behaviors for a defined platform or mission set; bring reusable improvements back into the team's pilot baseline.
• Validate autonomy use of vehicle-control, perception, mission-compute, and C2 interfaces using established contracts; implement an assigned adapter only when ownership is explicit.
• Build unit, integration, and mission-scenario tests; reproduce and debug behavior or interface issues using logs, telemetry, and simulation.
• Support SIL/HIL, bench, and representative test events; capture evidence of mission behavior and verify fixes with guidance from a program technical lead.
• Coordinate platform-interface and deployment issues with Integration & Test or platform owners, and work with the Autonomy Capabilities team on defects or enhancements to shared planning and decision-making capabilities.
• Document mission configuration, limitations, test procedures, and lessons learned for future program work.

We are seeking Autonomous Software Engineers for full-time roles starting in 2027! This is a paid, in-person, full-time position for students graduating during the 2026-2027 academic year. We are now reviewing applications for positions starting after graduation in 2027.