Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy Integration (R5441) (San Diego)

Job Description:

This role is the team's primary interface between perception software and the flight test enterprise. You will work alongside autonomy/perception software developers, flight test engineers, and platform integration teams to mature our capabilities from algorithm to flight-verified system. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience deploying and testing autonomy or perception software on edge hardware, a strong foundation in one or more core perception disciplines (detection, tracking, SLAM, or navigation), and a bias toward field execution over theoretical analysis.

• Coordinate software and hardware integration activities that enable the autonomy team to deploy and test their stack across a range of platforms, including small UAS, manned fixed-wing aircraft, and unmanned fixed-wing surrogate platforms.
• Drive sensor selection for EO/IR and A-PNT perception software testing on operationally relevant or surrogate platforms; support flight test engineers in sensor bring-up, characterization, calibration, and maintenance.
• Own the fly-fix-fly cycle for autonomy and perception software: integrate the Hivemind Pilot stack onto target hardware, verify correct deployment and configuration, define test objectives for flight test campaigns, help execute tests in the field, and analyze collected data to determine pass/fail status against objectives.
• Own sensor calibration and time synchronization processes for all A-PNT and perception sensors used in testing, including camera intrinsic/extrinsic calibration and camera-IMU temporal alignment.
• Establish data quality standards and curate data management processes for field-collected sensor data, ensuring that recordings from flight test campaigns are usable for offline analysis and algorithm development.
• Resolve technical and logistical ambiguities at the boundary between software development and flight test operations, and make command decisions that keep perception maturation efforts moving forward.

• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or 5 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Hands-on experience calibrating and time-aligning EO/IR and position, navigation, and timing (PNT) sensors, including both COTS and military-grade hardware.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in fast-paced field testing environments, with comfort operating at the intersection of hardware, software, and flight operations.
• Experience in design of experiments, flight test card development, and establishing verifiable, measurable test objectives.
• Experience deploying perception or autonomy software to edge hardware platforms (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson or comparable embedded compute).
• Proficiency in Python for data analysis and visualization; comfort reading and making targeted modifications to algorithms implemented in C++.
• Track record of solving problems that span hardware, software, and engineering capacity constraints across functional or organizational boundaries.
• Demonstrated academic training or professional experience in a core perception discipline such as object detection, object tracking, SLAM, or navigation, preferably in a defense or aerospace context.

• Experience with camera calibration frameworks (e.g., Kalibr) and camera-IMU extrinsic and temporal calibration workflows.
• Familiarity with rosbag-based data collection, replay, and analysis pipelines in robotics or autonomy systems.
• Experience characterizing EO/IR gimbal cameras, including MTF, distortion, and radiometric properties.
• Background supporting DoD or defense aviation programs, including experience operating under controlled airspace or range environments.
• Familiarity with Conan-based, Nix-based, or CMake-based build systems and embedded Linux development.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and test automation in the context of embedded software.

This role is hybrid, based at Shield AI's San Diego, CA headquarters (three days per week in office), with periodic travel to flight test sites required.

Staff: 195,000-$290,000

Senior Staff: $230,000- $350,000

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.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed toequal 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.