Staff Perception Software Engineer, Sensor Fusion (R3160)

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company focused on protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its flagship autonomy software, Hivemind, powers aircraft, drones, and other platforms, enabling complex missions with high reliability in contested environments. With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and internationally, Shield AI’s products actively support U.S. and allied operations worldwide.

For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

As a member of the HMX Perception team, you will conduct software development at the intersection of classical state estimation techniques, sensor fusion, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and machine perception. You will develop cutting-edge technology onto real hardware that provides robust and accurate estimates of vehicle pose and surroundings for real missions. Shield AI is pushing the envelope by applying advanced AI solutions to real hardware systems. An ideal candidate should aspire to be a part of this industry-changing team developing and deploying advanced technology that can truly make an impact.

What you'll do:

Write production quality software in C++
Produce an Assured Position, Navigation, and Timing (A-PNT) system to enable reliable autonomy in GNSS-degraded or denied environments
Extend and specialize Shield AI’s state-of-the-art state estimation framework for new sensors, platforms, and missions
Write test code to validate your software with simulated and real-world data
Collaborate with hardware and test teams to validate algorithms/code on aerial platforms
Write analyzers to ingest data and produce statistics to validate code quality
Enhance sensor models within a high-fidelity simulation environment
Work in a fast-paced, collaborative, continuous development environment, enhancing analysis and benchmarking capabilities

Required Qualifications:

BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience
Ability to develop, benchmark, debug, and deploy software-based algorithms
Demonstrated problem solving skills by applying a scientific approach
Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 5 years and a Master’s degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience
Demonstrated experience integrating and working with sensor payloads in the DoD space
Proficient with sensor fusion for noisy high-bandwidth exteroceptive sensors on compute-constrained systems
A solid foundation in theory related to state estimation, object detection, data association, probabilistic robotics, and signal processing.
Experience working projects with 10+ contributors
Offers Fast, efficient, effective problem solving approaches
Exceptional collaborator and communicator
Comfortability within Unix environments
Hard-working, trustworthy teammate
Exhibits holding themselves and others to high standards
Being kind to others
Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

MS or greater in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience
Understanding of robotics technologies related to autonomous behavior development e.g. task allocation or planning.
Understanding/Experience with unmanned system technologies and accompanying algorithms (specifically air domain)
Familiarity with high-fidelity simulation and sensor modeling
Working knowledge of Kalman Filter, Factor Graphs and other modern estimator fundamentals.
Strong working knowledge of Computer Vision with hands-on experience with OpenCV or similar CV libraries.
Experience developing sensor effects (control) algorithms.
Hands-on experience developing or implementing state of the art object detection/recognition pipelines.
Active SECRET clearance
Experience with UCI and OMS Standards