Staff Engineer – System Test Network

About the role

Shield AI is looking for a Staff Engineer to join its HIL and Infrastructure team. You will design, develop, test, and sustain program‑specific networks that connect radios, sensors, flight hardware, autonomy software, and simulation systems.

Key responsibilities

• Design, build, configure, and maintain scalable network architectures for HIL labs, integration environments, and shared test infrastructure across multiple programs.
• Define and manage Layer 2/Layer 3 configurations, including VLANs, routing, multicast, QoS, access controls, redundancy, and time‑synchronization services.
• Develop networking software, configuration‑as‑code, and automation tools to make lab network deployment repeatable and recoverable.
• Integrate switches, routers, firewalls, servers, simulators, flight computers, radios, and other hardware into representative HIL and program network environments, including MANETs using Persistent Systems MPU5/Wave Relay and Silvus StreamCaster.
• Create and execute network test plans measuring connectivity, throughput, latency, jitter, packet loss, multicast behavior, and failover performance.
• Build observability capabilities with packet capture, telemetry, logs, dashboards, and automated health checks.

Required profile

• Minimum 5 years of experience (or 3 years with a Master’s) in network engineering, systems integration, test infrastructure, or software development.
• Strong knowledge of Ethernet, TCP/IP, switching, routing, subnetting, VLANs, multicast, DNS, DHCP, NAT, QoS, and common transport protocols.
• Hands‑on experience with managed switches, routers, firewalls, Linux hosts, and networked computing systems.
• Proficiency in Python (or comparable language) for automation, configuration generation, and test development.
• Experience developing and executing structured network tests using Wireshark, tcpdump, iperf, traffic generators, and device telemetry.
• Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance.

Required skills

• Python programming for network automation.
• Ethernet and TCP/IP networking concepts.
• Managed switch, router, and firewall configuration.
• Wireshark, tcpdump, iperf, traffic‑generator tools.
• Ansible, Netmiko, NAPALM, Terraform (infrastructure‑as‑code).
• Cisco, Arista, Juniper, NVIDIA networking hardware.
• Persistent Systems MPU5/Wave Relay and Silvus StreamCaster platforms.