Staff Safety-Critical Software 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:

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to help drive the design, development, and integration of a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for a suite of core products and capabilities that brings resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments. The RTA product that the Foundations team develops is a real-time safety capability that helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge.  

As a member of the Foundations team, you will be responsible for driving C++ software development against rigorous coding standards and requirements, integration of reusable safety capabilities into production systems, defining clean interfaces and tests, and turn safety-critical designs into reliable software that can fly, including support for X-BAT, Shield AI's flagship Group 5 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) UAV. 

What you'll do:

• Drive architecture, development, integration and testing of an extensible, configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) module that ensures safe operation of autonomous systems in diverse, adversarial conditions. 

• Work closely with other engineers in Foundations to design and integrate with the low-assurance mission-autonomy software and high-assurance middleware. 

• Specialize, integrate and test the RTA capability on a diverse set of platforms in various conditions to ensure robust fail-safe behavior. 

• Drive principled software development practices across Foundations including but not limited to code analysis, audit trail, principled review processes. 

• Collaborate with the team to generate artifacts that enable certifiability of Foundations software, including but not limited to static & dynamic analysis reports, software documentation, architecture decision records (ADRs), interface control diagrams (ICDs), system models. 

• Mentor and guide Foundations developers on practices of safe software development to enhance software quality and assurance. 

Required qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years with a Master’s degree; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience. 

• Demonstrated excellence in designing and developing C++ based safety-critical software systems with Real-Time guarantees. 

• Experience working as a mentor to other engineers in a role driving software best practices to enhance software quality. 

• Experience integrating software on real-world physical systems and driving up performance and reliability. 

• Deep expertise in C++ software architecture design patterns and their practical implementation. 

• Strong knowledge of software assurance certifications such as DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516. 

• Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices (e.g., CI/CD, test-driven development). 

• A track record of technical leadership, with the ability to set and maintain high standards, guide teams through complex technical challenges, and collaborate effectively. 

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards (e.g., MISRA C++, JSF AV C++) 

• Hands-on experience with airworthiness certifications such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C. 

• Experience taking a solution through a certification process and achieving a certification. 

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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.

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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.