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NEXTMOVEFDE careers · United States

Staff Software Engineer, Autonomy Behaviors (R4588)

AI summary of the role

Staff-level role on the Autonomy Capabilities Team developing tactical autonomy behaviors for unmanned platforms across air, land, sea, and space.

No longer in the current catalog. Last included 2026-09-09. Check the employer’s posting for availability.

What you’ll do

  • Develop tactical autonomy software for unmanned platforms across air, land, sea, and space with minimal human supervision
  • Implement and test behaviors for multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios
  • Architect behaviors as scalable software subsystems interacting with sensor processing, state estimation, communications, and actuation
  • Collaborate with external teams and operational SMEs (e.g., fighter pilots, UAV operators) on interfacing requirements

What you’ll bring

  • BS/MS/PhD in CS, Aerospace, EE, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering or related field
  • Proficient in production-level C++ software development
  • 7+ years in software sub-system scheduling/integration, behavior planning, task/resource allocation, motion planning, optimization, or flight controls
  • Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams and manage full project lifecycles from concept to deployment

Technologies

C++ · ROS · OMPL · AFSIM · NGTS · DO-178C · MIL-STD · optimization solvers · flight controls · motion planning

About Shield AI

Builds AI pilot software, aircraft, and vision systems that let militaries and OEMs develop, deploy, and operate mission autonomy in contested environments.

Unicorn

Source and classification

Internal deployment & tooling · Evidence for this classification:

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. The Autonomy Capabilities Team develops functionality to automate single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives and acts as a central discipline-aligned focal-point for encouraging consistent usage of technical approaches across business portfolios. This team operates at all levels of the command-and-control hierarchy (from advanced control
More from the job description

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. The Autonomy Capabilities Team develops functionality to automate single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives and acts as a central discipline-aligned focal-point for encouraging consistent usage of technical approaches across business portfolios. This team operates at all levels of the command-and-control hierarchy (from advanced control laws, through motion planning, and up to advanced tactical behaviors and multi-agent coordination) and across a multitude of mission sets, platform types, and operational domains (e.g., air, sea, space). The team puts a strong emphasis on both fundamentals (e.g., aircraft kinematics/dynamics, trajectory design, optimization, information fusion, efficient algorithms, etc.) and software integration skillsets (e.g. structures, protocols, threading, interface management, etc.) to bring market-differen [... source excerpt omitted ...] xpected to be integrated into real-world platforms with near-term program impacts and rewards and so balancing theory with practice and rigorous implementation is paramount. What You'll Do: Develop tactical autonomy software to enable unmanned platforms to perform complex missions across air, land, sea, and space domains with minimal human supervision Implement and test behaviors that enable multi-agent coordination, target engagement, reconnaissance, and survivability in contested scenarios Work throughout the entire of the software development lifecycle, from requirements capture through design, implementation, verification, and validation, utilizing tools and workflows c [... source excerpt omitted ...] orms (whether internally and externally owned), with a clear path towards architecture and capability evolution over time Collaborate with external teams, aligning on interfacing requirements between diverse systems, often working closely with vehicle integration teams and associated operational subject matter experts (e.g., fighter pilots, UAV operators, etc.) Act as a subject matter expert for software engineering, representing software equities in a multi-stakeholder environment including engineering, business and sales leadership. Travel to co-locate with end-users and/or other teams up to 20% of the time Required Qualifications: BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Aerospace Engi

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