Shield AI

Senior Engineer, State Estimation (R5784)

Shield AI • $160K — $250K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Degree in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
  • Strong software engineering skills in Python and modern C++.
  • Experience building developer tools and data processing pipelines for robotics or similar domains.
  • Working knowledge of linear algebra, probability, and 3D geometry.
  • Familiarity with state estimation concepts like sensor fusion and SLAM.
  • Ability to handle time-series and sensor data effectively.
  • Experience in developing on Linux with version control and testing tools.

Responsibilities

  • Build tools for ingesting and synchronizing navigation sensor data.
  • Develop visualizations and diagnostics for various estimates.
  • Create reproducible evaluation workflows tracking datasets and software versions.
  • Build automated benchmarks and regression tests for estimation accuracy.
  • Enable experiments comparing algorithms across datasets and conditions.
  • Help diagnose failures related to sensor data processing.
  • Integrate tools into SDK APIs and maintain clear documentation.

Benefits

  • Bonus opportunities available.
  • Equity participation in the company.
  • Access to comprehensive health benefits after 60 days for temporary employees.
  • Paid time off and other common employee benefits.
Full Job Description


Job Description:

Join Shield AI's Hivemind SDK State Estimation and Vision team to build the tools that help engineers develop, understand, and validate autonomous navigation systems. You will turn complex sensor data and estimator behavior into reproducible experiments, clear diagnostics, and actionable performance insights.

Your work will span data ingestion, sensor replay, visualization, calibration workflows, automated evaluation, and regression testing. Working closely with state estimation, vision, simulation, and flight test engineers, you will shorten the path from discovering an issue in real-world data to understanding its cause and validating a fix.

What you'll do:

  • Build and maintain tools for ingesting, inspecting, synchronizing, and replaying camera, IMU, GNSS, and other navigation sensor data.
  • Develop visualization and diagnostics for trajectories, coordinate frames, uncertainty, estimator residuals, feature tracks, and sensor health.
  • Create reproducible evaluation workflows that track datasets, software versions, calibration, and configuration.
  • Build automated benchmarks and regression tests for estimation accuracy, drift, robustness, runtime, and resource usage.
  • Enable batch experiments, parameter sweeps, and comparisons across algorithm versions, datasets, and operating conditions.
  • Help engineers diagnose failures involving timestamp alignment, calibration, frame conventions, data quality, and estimator behavior.
  • Integrate tooling into SDK APIs, command-line interfaces, and continuous integration workflows, with clear documentation and examples.
  • Partner with tool users to identify workflow bottlenecks and deliver reliable, maintainable solutions.


Required qualifications:

  • A degree in computer science, robotics, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Strong software engineering skills in Python and modern C++, with the ability to work effectively in both.
  • Experience building developer tools, data processing pipelines, test infrastructure, or analysis software for robotics, autonomy, computer vision, or a related technical domain.
  • Working knowledge of linear algebra, probability, 3D geometry, and coordinate transformations.
  • Familiarity with state estimation concepts such as sensor fusion, filtering, nonlinear optimization, visual odometry, or SLAM.
  • Ability to work with time-series and sensor data, including timestamps, units, reference frames, missing measurements, and data quality.
  • Experience developing on Linux using version control, automated testing, debugging, and profiling tools.
  • Ability to design usable interfaces, write maintainable code, and communicate technical findings clearly.


Preferred qualifications:

  • Experience with visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, factor graphs, bundle adjustment, Kalman filtering, or navigation in GNSS-degraded environments.
  • Experience with camera and IMU calibration, temporal synchronization, sensor noise characterization, or ground-truth alignment.
  • Familiarity with libraries such as Eigen, OpenCV, Ceres, or GTSAM.
  • Experience with robotics data formats and visualization tools such as ROS/ROS 2, MCAP, Foxglove etc.
  • Experience building interactive 2D/3D visualization, dashboards, or browser-based engineering tools.
  • Experience with simulation, software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testing, and flight-log analysis.
  • Familiarity with dataset versioning, experiment tracking, distributed evaluation, or large-scale data processing.
  • Experience profiling numerical software on embedded or resource-constrained systems.
  • Experience shipping SDKs, Python bindings, reusable libraries, or tools used by external developers.


$160,000 - $250,000 a year

#LI-KC3

#LC

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.

About Shield AI

Shield AI is a defense technology company that develops artificially intelligent systems for military applications. The company was founded in 2015 by Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, and Andrew Reiter, and is headquartered in San Diego, California. Shield AI's products include autonomous drones and software that can be used for reconnaissance, surveillance, and other military operations. The company's mission is to reduce the number of military casualties by providing soldiers with better intelligence and situational awareness. Shield AI has received funding from a number of investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund.
Learn more about Shield AI
Size
200 employees
Industry
Founded
2015

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