Shield AI

Staff Engineer, Mission Systems Software (R5888)

Shield AI$125K — $150K *
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in a relevant technical field (Computer Science, Software Engineering, etc.)
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience with 3+ years in software or systems architecture
  • Experience with real-time, safety-critical software systems
  • Proficient in C, C++, Rust, or similar programming languages
  • Strong grasp of real-time software principles such as scheduling and memory management
  • Skilled in software-hardware integration involving sensors and communication systems
  • Ability to hold U.S. Department of Defense security clearance.

Responsibilities

  • Serve as a mission systems engineer for a real-time mission-computing system
  • Define and maintain end-to-end software architecture and APIs
  • Architect for deterministic real-time performance across multiple factors
  • Develop architecture views, interface definitions, and technical decision records
  • Integrate diverse systems like sensors and communication with hardware teams
  • Design systems for resilience and assurance through various safety measures
  • Define and execute verification strategies across multiple testing environments.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive employee benefits package including equity options
  • Eligibility for bonus based on performance
  • Access to temporary benefits after 60 days of employment
Full Job Description
The Mission Systems Software Engineer will work on developing solutions of a real time system environment to provide mission computing support at the center of an autonomous aircraft with sensor and weapons. This role will work to establish a software architecture for a real time system that operates in a multi-level environment at real time. The role will require work with hardware, software and systems teams to come to a consensus design. This role will focus on development of new systems and software designs from PDR, CoDR, CDR to lab test, flight test and fielding. What you'll do: • Serve as a software mission systems engineer for a safety- and mission-critical real-time mission-computing system aligned with A-GRA and AMS-GRA principles, profiles, interfaces, and data standards. • Define and maintain the end-to-end software architecture, including mission applications, platform services, middleware, operating-system interfaces, hardware-abstraction layers, networking, data distribution, component boundaries, and APIs. • Architect for deterministic real-time performance by addressing scheduling, latency, jitter, synchronization, throughput, resource utilization, distributed processing, and CPU/GPU/accelerator allocation. • Develop architecture views, interface definitions, data-flow and deployment models, sequence and timing diagrams, resource budgets, trade studies, and technical decision records. • Integrate sensors, effectors, communications, navigation, autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, data-processing, and vehicle services in collaboration with hardware, FPGA, cybersecurity, safety, systems, integration, and test teams. • Design for mission resilience and assurance through fault detection and isolation, redundancy, graceful degradation, recovery, health monitoring, cybersecurity, airworthiness, certification, and requirements traceability. • Establish engineering practices for concurrency, synchronization, memory and resource management, deterministic execution, interface control, configuration management, and predictable component integration. • Define and execute verification strategies across HIL/SIL laboratories, simulations, test benches, flight-test environments, and deployed systems using automated, performance, stress, fault-injection, interface, and timing tests. • Maintain technical ownership throughout the system lifecycle by evaluating enabling technologies and supplier designs, analyzing performance, managing technical debt and modernization roadmaps, promoting reuse, and communicating architectural decisions. Required qualifications: • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field. • 8+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including 3+ years in software architecture, systems architecture, or technical leadership. • Experience developing embedded, distributed, real-time, safety-critical, or mission-critical software systems. • Proficiency in C, C++, Rust, or another strongly typed systems-programming language. • Strong understanding of real-time software principles, including scheduling, concurrency, synchronization, latency, jitter, memory management, and deterministic execution. • Experience with embedded operating systems or RTOSs, middleware, interprocess communication, networking, and data-distribution technologies. • Experience defining software architectures, APIs, interface-control documents, data flows, deployment models, and system resource budgets. • Experience integrating software with hardware, sensors, communications systems, navigation systems, effectors, or other mission-system components. • Experience supporting software through requirements development, design reviews, implementation, integration, verification, system test, and deployment. • Working knowledge of systems-engineering processes, requirements management, traceability, configuration management, and verification and validation. • Ability to analyze system performance using instrumentation, telemetry, traces, profiling, network captures, timing data, and resource-utilization measurements. • Strong cross-functional technical leadership, problem-solving, written communication, and presentation skills. • Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of Defense security clearance; U.S. citizenship may be required for clearance eligibility. Preferred qualifications: • Experience developing software for autonomous aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, avionics, mission computers, robotics, or aerospace and defense platforms. • Experience with A-GRA, AMS-GRA, OMS, UCI, FACE, or other government reference architectures and open-mission-system standards. • Experience integrating autonomy, mission management, command-and-control, sensor processing, communications, navigation, and effector capabilities. • Familiarity with airworthiness, safety-assurance, or certification standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or applicable military airworthiness guidance. • Experience with CPU-, GPU-, FPGA-, or accelerator-based heterogeneous computing architectures. • Experience with publish/subscribe middleware, quality-of-service controls, high-rate data distribution, precision timing, and distributed time synchronization. • Experience designing cybersecurity controls for embedded or mission systems, including trust boundaries, least privilege, authentication, authorization, secure communications, and software integrity. • Experience with HIL/SIL environments, simulation systems, laboratory integration, flight testing, or operational deployment. • Experience evaluating supplier designs, RTOSs, middleware, computing platforms, or third-party software for architectural compliance and integration readiness. • Active or previously held U.S. Department of Defense Secret clearance. #LI-AA1 #LD 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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