Autonomy Engineer, Navigation

About Shield AI

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company dedicated to protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Their innovative products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and Hivemind Vision product lines. With a global presence across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai.

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Job Description: Autonomy Engineer, Navigation

Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy team is at the forefront of building next-generation autonomy and navigation solutions for resilient, mission-critical systems. As an Autonomy Engineer, Navigation, you will directly contribute to the design, development, integration, test, and deployment of the Hivemind navigation stack. We are seeking engineers with proven experience in delivering robust navigation and state estimation solutions for defense aviation systems, ISR platforms, or other DoD-relevant applications. Strong expertise in C++ software development for embedded Linux systems is essential. This role is open to individuals ranging from senior technical contributors to subject matter experts, based on experience level and demonstrated technical leadership capacity.

What you'll do:

• Research and develop advanced state estimation and navigation algorithms to ensure assured Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) in contested environments.
• Design, write, and deploy production-quality C++ software for aviation platforms requiring real-time, deterministic performance.
• Build and maintain comprehensive unit, integration, and system-level tests to validate navigation software performance under operational constraints.
• Develop modeling, calibration, and simulation tools for inertial and aided navigation technologies used in airborne platforms.
• Participate in agile-based product planning, feature definition, capacity estimation, and cross-team collaboration.
• Contribute to ongoing system performance evaluation, regression analysis, and V&V (Verification and Validation) efforts.

Required Qualifications:

• Strong proficiency in modern C++ (C++11 or newer) and professional experience developing software for embedded Linux systems. Familiarity with Python for prototyping is acceptable, but primary development experience must be in C++.
• Familiarity with designing and deploying state-of-the-art estimation algorithms, such as error state, EKF, UKF, or factor graphs.
• Familiarity with developing for constrained environments requiring deterministic timing and high reliability.
• Deep understanding of inertial navigation systems (INS), GNSS integration, and navigation error modeling.
• Expertise in calibrating and integrating IMUs, GPS receivers, magnetometers, and barometric sensors with flight software.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing and deploying assured PNT systems for DoD customers.
• Expertise in building digital models and simulations of navigation sensors and systems to inform hardware trade studies and mission analysis.
• Familiarity with alternative navigation techniques, such as celestial navigation, terrain-aided navigation, or vision-based navigation (VBN).
• Experience validating and verifying navigation systems in operational test environments.
• Principal-level applicants are expected to demonstrate thought leadership in navigation systems and may serve as technical mentors, roadmap authors, design reviewers, or proposal authors.

This role can be based remotely or located in one of our offices: San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, DC, or Boston.

Key skills/competency

• C++
• Embedded Linux
• Navigation Algorithms
• State Estimation (EKF, UKF)
• Inertial Navigation Systems (INS)
• GNSS Integration
• Sensor Fusion
• Real-time Systems
• Software Development
• DoD Applications