Senior Staff Engineer – Maritime Autonomy

About the role

Shield AI is seeking a senior technical leader to drive autonomy capabilities for its maritime portfolio. You will design and integrate advanced motion‑planning, localization, and multi‑agent collaboration algorithms for USVs, UUVs and cooperating UAVs, delivering real‑world impact on defense missions.

Key responsibilities

• Develop robust motion‑planning solutions that respect safety constraints, keep‑out volumes, and depth limits for unmanned surface and underwater vehicles.
• Design and implement cutting‑edge localization and tracking pipelines using sensor fusion and observability‑aware maneuvers.
• Ensure safe maritime operations by embedding COLREGS compliance and runtime assurance into autonomous behavior architectures.
• Create distributed optimization and task‑allocation methods for heterogeneous multi‑agent teams to achieve mission objectives.
• Produce high‑performance, well‑tested software modules ready for mid‑to‑high TRL integration and support deployment, testing, and analysis on real platforms.

Required profile

• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering or related field with 7‑10+ years of relevant experience.
• Proven expertise in robotics, motion planning, autonomous system design, and unmanned vehicle technologies.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET security clearance.

Required skills

• Proficiency in C++ and Python programming.
• Experience with real‑time operating systems (RTOS).
• Hands‑on knowledge of simulation tools such as AFSIM and NGTS.
• Strong background in optimization, information fusion, and multi‑agent coordination.
• Familiarity with USV/UUV platforms and maritime autonomy constraints.