Manager of Engineering - Autonomous Pilot Integration - Emerging Domains

Autonomous Pilot Integration Team Lead

Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology actively supports operations worldwide.

The Autonomous Pilot Integration team for emerging domains builds autonomy solutions for new platforms and mission profiles outside Shield AI's established portfolios — including space (satellites, missile defense), maritime (USV and UUV integration), and contested logistics (unmanned helicopters and related autonomous resupply platforms). The team takes on short-term R&D and integration efforts — often standing up the first autonomy on a brand-new platform or for a brand-new mission — with the intent that successful efforts grow into larger, multi-year programs. We combine capabilities from the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team (e.g., ViDAR, ATR), and the HivemindSDK — selectively leveraging existing Shield AI autonomy solutions where they apply — to develop autonomy that runs on these new platforms. Our engineers write new autonomy code — such as mission behaviors, platform-specific control, multi-agent coordination, contingencies, and executive autonomy — and own it end-to-end from software-in-the-loop, to hardware-in-the-loop, to vehicle-in-the-loop, to live test exercise.

In this role, you'll lead a team of autonomy engineers tackling autonomy across Shield AI's emerging-domain efforts — owning their delivery, their growth, and the technical health of your area. A core part of the job is growing the team: hiring strong engineers, mentoring them through hard technical work, and shaping their career development. You'll stay technically active — writing code where it best serves the team, staying close to the integration work, making sound technical decisions, and leading them through the design, development, and delivery of efforts that may shift in shape, scope, and timeline. This role demands a problem solver who thrives in the unknown — you'll be standing up first autonomy on platforms that often don't have an established autopilot interface, mission autonomy, or operator base yet, and you'll be comfortable with priorities and deadlines that shift as programs mature. You'll partner closely with the platform teams that build each new piece of hardware (spacecraft, vessel, helicopter, etc.), the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams, and customer/program offices on each effort. Success here means turning short-term R&D and integration efforts into longer-term programs that scale — with the growth opportunity, if desired, to lead the new portfolios that emerge from this work as they mature and graduate from emerging domains.

What you'll do:

• Lead the Team — Manage an engineering team (typically 5–10 engineers spanning multiple emerging-domain efforts); own performance, growth, leveling, and delivery; run 1:1s, performance reviews, and team rituals.
• Grow the Team via Hiring — Drive hiring for your area: identify the skills you need, partner with recruiting, run interviews, set the bar, and personally close strong candidates.
• Grow Engineers Technically — Mentor engineers through hard problems; create stretch opportunities; give direct, actionable technical feedback; help engineers level up in both skill and impact.
• Stand Up New Programs — Stand up autonomy on new platforms and missions — often as the first autonomy engineering presence on the program. Define what the autonomy stack looks like, decide what to build versus what to leverage from existing Shield AI capabilities, and set the technical direction for the effort.
• Navigate Ambiguity & Shifting Priorities — Operate effectively in an environment where program shape, scope, and timeline often shift. Make sound technical and staffing decisions with incomplete information, communicate changes clearly to your team and stakeholders, and protect engineering velocity through churn.
• Develop & Field Autonomy — Develop & integrate autonomy software solutions onto emerging-domain platforms — satellites, USVs/UUVs, unmanned helicopters, and similar — including platform and autopilot integration, payload and sensor integration, mission behaviors, and validation across software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, vehicle-in-the-loop, and live test events. Lead a small team through the design, development, and delivery of each effort.
• Technical Leadership — Lead a small feature crew or sub-program; set technical direction, break down work, unblock the team, and report progress to leadership and stakeholders.
• Hands-on Technical Contribution — Stay active in the code; contribute directly where it serves the team — prototyping new capabilities, taking on deep technical analysis of hard problems, or absorbing critical work during demo crunch. This is a manager role, not a managing-only role.
• Platform Team Partnerships — Build strong partnerships with each platform team that owns the underlying hardware (spacecraft, vessel, rotorcraft, or other autonomous system) — coordinating on platform changes, autopilot or control-interface evolution, sensor integration, and release planning. Relationships and tight coordination with these teams are critical for success on each new program.
• Collaboration Across Teams & Partners — Act as a primary technical interface with the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams, feature crews, and customer/program offices (U.S. and international); author and negotiate ICDs and interface contracts rather than just consume them.
• Design & Documentation — Drive design reviews, ICDs, and post-mortems for your area; push the team toward higher rigor and close process gaps that span teams.
• Pre-deployment Preparation — Own the build, configuration, and validation process for mission-ready systems; coordinate hardware/software compatibility, mission readiness, and release cadence with capability and platform teams.
• On-site Test & Mission Support — Travel to test sites, customer exercises, and demonstrations to support live mission operations — flight tests, range exercises, on-water trials, satellite ground tests, and similar — including safety checks, system bring-up, and troubleshooting under time-critical constraints.
• Hardware/Software Debugging — Diagnose and resolve integration issues across complex autonomy stacks, payload computers, and embedded systems in lab and field environments — including memory, CPU, and timing profiling under operationally-representative loads.
• Mission Data & Debrief Support — Capture mission and test data, reproduce issues in simulation, and partner with autonomy capability owners to drive fixes back into the next build.
• Continuous Improvement — Build tools and processes to improve integration timelines, test/mission reliability, and team efficiency across deployment cycles.
• C2 Interoperability & Standards — Own the interface contracts with C2 providers and drive compliance against common message and open-systems standards relevant to each program (e.g., UCI, OMS, STANAG 4586 for aerial systems, and program-appropriate standards for maritime and space).
• Grow R&D into Programs — Work with leadership and customers to evolve successful short-term R&D efforts into larger, longer-term programs; help shape pursuit strategy and scope as programs mature.
• Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 20-30% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, test events, and integration events).

Required qualifications:

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience
• Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 5 years and a Master's degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• 2+ years of direct people-management experience (running 1:1s, performance reviews, hiring decisions, growth planning).
• Demonstrated experience building or growing an engineering team — including interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new engineers.
• Track record of mentoring engineers and growing their technical skill and career trajectory.
• Demonstrated experience leading a small technical team or owning a major capability from design through field delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in ambiguity — standing up new efforts with incomplete requirements, making sound decisions with limited information, and adapting to shifting deadlines and priorities.
• Experience standing up autonomy on a new platform or for a new mission type (R&D, prototype, or early-stage integration efforts).
• Experience authoring or negotiating interface contracts / ICDs with internal or external stakeholders.
• Direct experience with autonomous unmanned systems — air, maritime (USV/UUV), space, ground, or rotorcraft.
• Strong proficiency in C++, with experience developing or integrating real-time or latency-sensitive systems.
• Proficiency in Linux-based development and experience working with embedded systems, shell scripting, and system diagnostics.
• Familiarity with middleware, pub-sub, or IPC frameworks used in autonomy