Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company focused on protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. They are seeking a Manager of Engineering for their Autonomous Pilot Integration team, which builds autonomy solutions for unmanned aircraft in expeditionary environments. The role involves leading a team of engineers, mentoring them, and collaborating closely with the aircraft team to develop and integrate autonomy software solutions.
Responsibilities
- Lead the Team — Manage a small-to-mid-sized engineering team (typically 5–10 engineers); 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
- Aircraft Team Partnership — Maintain an exceptionally close, daily working relationship with the aircraft team that builds and maintains V-BAT — coordinating continuously on platform changes, autopilot interface evolution, sensor integration, hardware/software compatibility, and release planning. For X-BAT, work closely with the aircraft team to define and integrate the flight-autonomy interface. The success of this role depends heavily on these partnerships
- Develop & Field Autonomy — Develop & integrate autonomy software solutions onto V-BAT, including payload and sensor integration (e.g., payload computer bring-up, ViDAR, EO/IR), integration with the custom V-BAT autopilot and its control modes (e.g., HSA, waypoint), multi-agent coordination, and customer release cadence — and lead a small team through the design, development, and delivery of a major capability or program
- 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
- Collaboration Across Teams & Partners — Act as a primary technical interface with the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team, the GCS team, feature crews, the Strategic Systems (ACP) portfolio (whose existing mission autonomy solution underpins X-BAT), and customer/program offices (U.S. and international services); 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 and customer releases; coordinate hardware/software compatibility, mission readiness, release cadence, and operator-facing workflow validation with capability and feature teams
- On-site Test & Mission Support — Travel to test sites, customer exercises, and operator training/deployment events to support live mission operations (flight tests, range exercises, multi-agent live events, customer demonstrations, and fielded operator support), 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 GCS and C2 providers and drive compliance against common message and open-systems standards (e.g., STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS)
- Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 20-30% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, operator training and deployment events, and integration events)
Skills
- 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
- Experience authoring or negotiating interface contracts / ICDs with internal or external stakeholders
- Direct experience with Group 3 unmanned aircraft, VTOL platforms, or comparable medium-sized unmanned systems
- Experience with multi-agent autonomy
- 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 or robotics systems (e.g., DDS, message buses)
- Hands-on experience supporting live exercises, customer demonstrations, or operational test events for medium unmanned aircraft or fielded autonomous systems
- Experience with autonomy simulation environments for testing and validation
- Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and optimize system performance across the full stack
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment
- Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance
- Direct experience integrating autonomy with custom or in-house autopilot stacks at the platform integration level
- Experience integrating autonomy with VTOL or hybrid-mode aircraft across multiple control interfaces (e.g., high-level state, waypoint)
- Experience with EO/IR or ViDAR-class sensor integration
- Experience with long-endurance ISR mission profiles
- Proficiency in Python for scripting, automation, and analysis
- Experience leading a feature crew, sub-program, or small team in an unmanned systems context
- Experience growing engineers from mid-level into senior IC, or supporting promotion decisions through a leveling framework
- Experience deploying autonomy onto fielded, customer-operated platforms — including operator workflow iteration, release cadence, and customer feedback loops
- Experience iterating directly with fielded military operators or training cadres
- Experience supporting international defense customer programs (FMS or direct commercial sales)
- Experience owning customer- or partner-facing technical relationships (e.g., autopilot teams, GCS teams, government program offices)
- Track record of cross-team improvements (process, rigor, documentation, or developer experience)
- Familiarity with autonomy stacks, motion planning, or vehicle-control integration
- Competence in avionics bring-up, payload computer integration, or hardware-in-the-loop debugging
- Experience developing for or deploying onto ARM-based systems (e.g., embedded payload computers)
- Experience with containerization (e.g., Docker) on embedded or payload compute
- Proficiency in developing automation tools for system testing, logging, and data parsing
- Experience developing custom GCS or mission planning surfaces (e.g., TypeScript / web-based applications)
- Build-system experience (e.g., Conan, CMake) and CI/CD pipeline familiarity
- Comfortable interfacing with DoD stakeholders during field events or technical reviews
- Experience with common message and open-systems standards such as STANAG 4586, UCI, or OMS
Benefits
- Bonus
- Benefits
- Equity
- Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Company Overview
Shield AI is a deep-tech company that focuses on developing AI-powered systems to enhance the safety of service members and civilians. It was founded in 2015, and is headquartered in San Diego, California, USA, with a workforce of 1001-5000 employees. Its website is http://www.shield.ai.