Staff C++ Build and Release Engineer

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. 

Job Description:

We’re building intelligent systems that protect service members and civilians. Our autonomy and vision technology is now being adopted across some of the most complex and high-stakes environments in modern defence.  

We’ve developed a dedicated software factory for building, optimising, evaluating, and analysing autonomy and vision system solutions - and it’s gaining serious momentum. As demand grows, we’re working closely with partners and customers to solve real warfighting problems and deliver technology that genuinely changes what’s possible.  

This role sits at the heart of that mission.  

This is a build & release engineering role for teams shipping autonomy software to edge-deployed systems, frequently in isolated / constrained environments. You’ll own the engineering “last mile” between C++ development and dependable delivery: reproducible builds, trustworthy artefacts, promotion across environments, and deployable releases that work where they matter most. 

If you love modern C++ toolchains, dependency hygiene, artefact provenance, and making CI/CD fast and deterministic—this is for you. 

What you'll do:

• Own C++ build and release workflows for autonomy and vision products, from source → build → test → package → release. 

• Support and evolve containerised CI/CD pipelines across multiple isolated environments (speed, determinism, promotion, repeatability).  

• Build and maintain container images for edge deployment 

• Manage JFrog/Artifactory repositories for multi-language and generic artefacts; improve versioning, retention, and promotion practices. 

• Strengthen dependency and build reproducibility for C++, reducing “works on my machine” and pipeline flakiness.  

• Validate and deploy autonomy and vision-system products, tools, and libraries—focusing on edge delivery and reliability.  

• Collaborate with engineers and system admins to ensure integration and stability across real deployment environments. 

• Tackle complex, meaningful problems that directly support mission outcomes.  

Required qualifications:

• Strong, hands-on experience delivering modern C++ software in production (not just “supporting” it). 

• Demonstrated ownership of build systems / toolchains / dependency management (e.g., Conan, CMake, Nix, Ninja, Artifactory —whatever you’ve used to ship real systems). 

• Significant recent experience running CI/CD for compiled software and maintaining the surrounding engineering systems (pipelines, runners/agents, artefact stores, promotion gates). 

• Significant recent experience in Docker / Podman and containerised workflows 

• Strong understanding of Linux/Unix systems.  

• Experience debugging and troubleshooting.  

• Background in air-gapped or isolated DevOps environments (or similarly constrained delivery contexts). 

• Experience supporting Python deployment/distribution (for tooling around the C++ core).  

Why Shield AI:

• Help shape the future of defence and autonomy in Australia and beyond.

• Be a key voice in a mission-led business redefining what’s possible with emerging technology.

• Join a growing, values-led team headquartered in Port Melbourne, with strong global partnerships and local autonomy.

• Competitive salary, performance-based incentives, and long-term growth opportunities.

What this role is not:

• Not a “cloud-first” DevOps role focused on standing up cloud infrastructure. 

• This role is primarily about C++ build & release engineering and edge delivery - making autonomy software shippable, repeatable, and dependable in real environments. 

Eligibility

• Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems, and this role supports that mission directly by working with Australian Government classified material. It requires an Australian Government security clearance at [Baseline / NV1 / NV2] level. 

• You don't need to hold a clearance already, we will sponsor your clearance and support you, because mission first, people always. Australian citizenship is a mandatory requirement for this role. It is a condition of clearance eligibility set by the Australian Government, eligibility details are here: https://www.agsva.gov.au/applicants/eligibility-suitability 

#LD

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.

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, colour, 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.