Autonomous Jobs in Boston, MA (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company focused on protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. The Manager of Engineering - Autonomous Pilot Integration will lead a team of engineers to develop and integrate autonomy software solutions for defense applications, ensuring reliable functionality in various environments.
Responsibilities:
• Lead the Team — Manage a small-to-mid-sized engineering team (typically 3–8 engineers); own performance, growth, leveling, and delivery; run 1:1s, performance reviews, and team rituals.
• Grow the Team via Hiring — Drive hiring for your area: identify the skills you need, partner with recruiting, run interviews, set the bar, and personally close strong candidates.
• Grow Engineers Technically — Mentor engineers through hard problems; create stretch opportunities; give direct, actionable technical feedback; help engineers level up in both skill and impact.
• Develop & Field Autonomy — Develop & integrate autonomy software solutions onto launched effects platforms, including payload computer bring-up, autopilot integration (e.g., PX4, ArduPilot), multi-agent coordination, and fleet-scale deployment to disconnected or air-gapped environments — and lead a small team through the design, development, and delivery of a major capability or program.
• Technical Leadership — Lead a small feature crew or sub-program; set technical direction, break down work, unblock the team, and report progress to leadership and stakeholders.
• Collaboration Across Teams & Partners — Act as a primary technical interface with the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team, feature crews, autopilot vendors (e.g., PX4, ArduPilot), C2 providers, and customer/contractor partners (including embedded contractor engineers and U.S. or international government program offices); author and negotiate ICDs and interface contracts rather than just consume them.
• Design & Documentation — Drive design reviews, ICDs, and post-mortems for your area; push the team toward higher rigor and close process gaps that span teams.
• Pre-deployment Preparation — Own the build, configuration, and validation process for mission-ready systems and fleet-scale deployments (often 50–150+ units in disconnected environments); coordinate hardware/software compatibility, mission readiness, and Capability Release (CR) cadence with capability and feature teams.
• On-site Test & Mission Support — Travel to test sites and customer exercises to support live mission operations (flight tests, range exercises, multi-agent live events, customer demonstrations), including safety checks, system bring-up, and troubleshooting under time-critical constraints.
• Hardware/Software Debugging — Diagnose and resolve integration issues across complex autonomy stacks, payload computers, and embedded systems in lab and field environments — including memory, CPU, and timing profiling under operationally-representative loads.
• Mission Data & Debrief Support — Capture mission and test data, reproduce issues in simulation, and partner with autonomy capability owners to drive fixes back into the next build.
• Continuous Improvement — Build tools and processes to improve integration timelines, test/mission reliability, and team efficiency across deployment cycles.
• C2 Interoperability & Standards — Own the interface contracts with C2 providers and drive compliance against common message and open-systems standards (e.g., UCI, OMS, MOSA, WOSA, TAK/CoT).
• Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 20-30% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, range exercises, and integration events).
Qualifications:
Required:
• BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience
• 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.
• 2+ years of direct people-management experience (running 1:1s, performance reviews, hiring decisions, growth planning).
• Demonstrated experience building or growing an engineering team — including interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new engineers.
• Track record of mentoring engineers and growing their technical skill and career trajectory.
• Demonstrated experience leading a small technical team or owning a major capability from design through field delivery.
• Experience authoring or negotiating interface contracts / ICDs with internal or external stakeholders.
• Direct experience with launched effects, loitering munitions, expendable autonomous systems, or comparable small unmanned platforms.
• Experience with multi-agent, swarm, or fleet-scale autonomy.
• Strong proficiency in C++, with experience developing or integrating real-time or latency-sensitive systems.
• Proficiency in Linux-based development and experience working with embedded systems, shell scripting, and system diagnostics.
• Familiarity with middleware, pub-sub, or IPC frameworks used in autonomy or robotics systems (e.g., DDS, message buses).
• Hands-on experience supporting live exercises, customer demonstrations, or operational test events for launched effects or similar small unmanned systems.
• Experience with autonomy simulation environments for testing and validation.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and optimize system performance across the full stack.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.
Preferred:
• Direct experience with PX4 and/or ArduPilot at the platform integration level.
• Experience using and developing on QGroundControl (QGC) or other Qt-based ground control stations.
• Proficiency in Python for scripting, automation, and analysis.
• Experience leading a feature crew, sub-program, or small team in an unmanned systems context.
• Experience growing engineers from mid-level into senior IC, or supporting promotion decisions through a leveling framework.
• Experience with air-gapped, disconnected, or otherwise constrained deployment of autonomous systems at fleet scale.
• Familiarity with tactical edge C2 (e.g., TAK, CoT) and ground operator workflows.
• Experience working with embedded contractor engineers, FFRDC partners, or customer-funded staff augmentation models.
• Experience supporting international defense customer programs (FMS or direct commercial sales).
• Experience owning customer- or partner-facing technical relationships (e.g., autopilot vendors, C2 providers, government program offices).
• Track record of cross-team improvements (process, rigor, documentation, or developer experience).
• Familiarity with autonomy stacks, motion planning, or vehicle-control integration.
• Competence in avionics bring-up, payload computer integration, or hardware-in-the-loop debugging.
• Experience with container orchestration (e.g., k3s, k3d, Docker) on embedded or payload compute.
• Proficiency in developing automation tools for system testing, logging, and data parsing.
• Build-system experience (e.g., Conan, CMake) and CI/CD pipeline familiarity.
• Comfortable interfacing with DoD stakeholders during field events or technical reviews.
• Experience with common message and open-systems standards such as UCI, OMS, MOSA, or WOSA.
Company:
Shield AI is a deep-tech company that focuses on developing AI-powered systems to enhance the safety of service members and civilians. Founded in 2015, the company is headquartered in San Diego, USA, with a team of 1001-5000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.