Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (C++)

About the role

Shield AI, a defense-tech company, is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help design, develop and integrate a safety-critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foundations team builds core products that bring resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms, and the RTA product is a real-time safety capability that keeps autonomy safe, predictable and effective at the edge.

Key responsibilities

• Drive the architecture, development, integration and testing of an extensible, configurable RTA module that ensures safe operation of autonomous systems in diverse, adversarial conditions.
• Design and integrate the RTA with low-assurance mission-autonomy software and high-assurance middleware, working closely with other Foundations engineers.
• Specialize, integrate and test the RTA capability on a range of platforms in various conditions to ensure robust fail-safe behavior.
• Drive principled software development practices such as code analysis, audit trails and principled review processes.
• Help generate artifacts that enable software certifiability, such as static and dynamic analysis reports, documentation, architecture decision records, interface control diagrams and system models.
• Mentor and guide Foundations developers on safe software development practices.

Required profile

• Typically 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree, or 9 years with a Master's, or 7 years with a PhD, or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated excellence in designing and developing C++ safety-critical software with real-time guarantees.
• Experience mentoring other engineers and improving software quality and assurance.
• Experience integrating software on real-world physical systems and improving performance and reliability.
• Track record of technical leadership, setting high standards and guiding teams through complex challenges.

Required skills

• Deep expertise in C++ software architecture design patterns and their implementation.
• Knowledge of software assurance certifications such as DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516.
• Strong Git and Linux skills, and modern practices such as CI/CD and test-driven development.
• Preferred: experience with strict C++ coding standards (e.g. MISRA C++, JSF AV C++) and hands-on airworthiness certification experience.