Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:As a senior member within the Hivemind autonomy team, you will join an ambitious effort to rapidly design, develop, integrate, test, and deploy the multi-target tracking stack for the Hivemind Pilot product line. You will bring a wealth of expertise in the theory of object tracking (e.g., optimal state estimation, sensor integration, data fusion, statistical inference, dynamics modeling) but also
expert-level proficiency in modern C++ to personally develop and deploy these algorithms into production. You will collaborate with other autonomy developers and members of the product development team to guide and drive the maturation of the multi-target tracking stack, personally developing features in modern C++ from the ground up, and validating performance through rigorous simulation studies, hardware-in-the-loop efforts, and flight test campaigns. You will play a significant role in advancing the state of the art in AI pilot technology for resilient autonomous systems, providing critical capabilities to our service members and allies.
What you'll do:- Research and develop world-class object tracking and data association algorithms
- Write production-quality tracking software in C++ that will be deployed on military platforms, ensuring robustness, efficiency, and scalability.
- Develop and maintain comprehensive unit, integration, and system tests to validate your software.
- Enhance sensor models within a state-of-the-art simulation environment
- Collaborate with other team members on product roadmap development, feature decomposition, and capacity planning within an agile development framework
- Work in a fast-paced, collaborative, continuous development environment, enhancing analysis and benchmarking capabilities
Required qualifications:- Extreme proficiency in modern C++ and object-oriented design patterns
- Professional experience deploying state estimation algorithms (KF, EKF, UKF)
- Demonstrated track record developing innovative solutions to modern multi-target tracking problems
- While familiarity with MATLAB for prototyping and algorithm development is useful, this role demands extensive experience and confidence in deploying production-level code exclusively in C++. Candidates whose primary experience is in MATLAB are unlikely to find this position a good fit.
- Experience with continuous integration (CI) pipelines and automated testing frameworks in C++
Preferred qualifications:- Experience with the full lifecycle of developing, testing, and deploying airborne EO/IR tracking systems in military environments, including real-time performance optimization in resource-constrained settings
- Experience developing error budgets for tracking accuracy
- Experience developing and deploying multi-hypothesis tracking algorithms
- Professional experience deploying C++ software for DoD acquisition programs
- Experience validating and verifying tracking requirements for DoD customers
- Familiarity with sensor line-of-sight reconstruction and error calibration
- Familiarity with object detection algorithms in visual, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR bands
- This role can be based remotely or located in one of our offices: San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, DC, or Boston.
- Senior: $160,000-$240,000
- Staff: $187,000-$281,000
- Senior Staff: $228,000-$342,000
$160,000 - $342,000 a year
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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.
Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
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