Senior Staff Applications Engineer, Autonomy

Senior Staff Applications Engineer, Autonomy

Apply for the Senior Staff Applications Engineer, Autonomy role at Shield AI. This role focuses on software engineering with autonomous systems or robotics, customer engagement, technical leadership, and strategic projects.

Location: San Diego, CA (On‑site, Remote)
Employment type: Full‑time Pay: $58.75 – $75.75/hr (Estimated)
Posted: 7 hours ago.

Our Senior Staff Applications Engineers are Subject Matter Experts in software engineering with autonomous systems or robotics, customer engagement and stakeholder management, technical leadership and mentorship, and strategic projects and road‑mapping. With the rest of the Customer Engagement team, they support customers during the implementation and use of Shield AI enterprise software products. The role involves working closely with customers to understand their requirements and ensure successful product integration for AI & Autonomy development.

• Become an expert user of the Hivemind enterprise software stack.
• Provide technical support and training to customers.
• Develop AI & Autonomy applications using the Shield AI enterprise software development kit.
• Assist the sales team in pre‑sales activities, e.g., demos.
• Assist in post‑sales deployment and integration of Shield AI enterprise software products.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation and training materials.
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues.
• Help customers debug software/API integration issues.
• Collaborate with the engineering team to address customer feedback and improve products.
• Conduct minimal travel (~10%) to other Shield AI sites for demos, team offsites, etc.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of industry experience.
• 3+ years of experience in an integration/applications engineering role.
• 3+ years of experience working in a startup environment.
• Strong technical background in software engineering.
• Strong proficiency in writing modern C++ code.
• Intermediate proficiency in writing Python code.
• Excellent problem‑solving and analytical skills.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

• Advanced degree in computer science, robotics, or similar.
• Experience in the defense aviation or robotics industry.
• Experience building and running a small enterprise software applications/solutions engineering team.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

• Industry: Software development
• Company size: 11 – 50 Employees
• Headquarters location:
  San Diego, CA, US
• Year founded: 2015
• Website: shield.ai
• Social media:
  Facebook, Twitter