Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (R5788)

About the role

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to help drive the design, development, and integration of a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for a suite of core products and capabilities that brings resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments. The RTA product that the Foundations team develops is a real-time safety capability that helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge.

As a member of the Foundations team, you will be responsible for driving C++ software development against rigorous coding standards and requirements, integration of reusable safety capabilities into production systems, defining clean interfaces and tests, and turn safety-critical designs into reliable software that can fly, including support for X-BAT, Shield AI's flagship Group 5 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) UAV.

What you'll do

• Drive architecture, development, integration and testing of an extensible, configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) module that ensures safe operation of autonomous systems in diverse, adversarial conditions.
• Work closely with other engineers in Foundations to design and integrate with the low-assurance mission-autonomy software and high-assurance middleware.
• Specialize, integrate and test the RTA capability on a diverse set of platforms in various conditions to ensure robust fail-safe behavior.
• Drive principled software development practices across Foundations including but not limited to code analysis, audit trail, principled review processes.
• Collaborate with the team to generate artifacts that enable certifiability of Foundations software, including but not limited to static & dynamic analysis reports, software documentation, architecture decision records (ADRs), interface control diagrams (ICDs), system models.
• Mentor and guide Foundations developers on practices of safe software development to enhance software quality and assurance.

Required qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 9 years with a Master’s degree; or 7 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Demonstrated excellence in designing and developing C++ based safety-critical software systems with Real-Time guarantees.
• Experience working as a mentor to other engineers in a role driving software best practices to enhance software quality.
• Experience integrating software on real-world physical systems and driving up performance and reliability.
• Deep expertise in C++ software architecture design patterns and their practical implementation.
• Strong knowledge of software assurance certifications such as DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516.
• Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices (e.g., CI/CD, test-driven development).
• A track record of technical leadership, with the ability to set and maintain high standards, guide teams through complex technical challenges, and collaborate effectively.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards (e.g., MISRA C++, JSF AV C++)
• Hands-on experience with airworthiness certifications such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C.
• Experience taking a solution through a certification process and achieving a certification.

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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.