Sr. Engineering Manager, Autonomy and Executive Reasoning (R2424) - Shield AI

Job Title: Sr. Engineering Manager, Autonomy and Executive Reasoning (R2424)
Job Location: San Diego Metro Area
Job Listing URL: https://jobs.lever.co/shieldai/40c136f8-2c66-4366-8a72-be73db38de4d
Job Description: About Shield AI
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company focused on protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its flagship autonomy software, Hivemind, powers aircraft, drones, and other platforms, enabling complex missions with high reliability in contested environments. With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and internationally, Shield AI’s products actively support U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn,Twitter, and Instagram.

The Hivemind Pilot team is an agile group of engineers focused on building a state-of-the-artAutonomy Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables resilient autonomy and intelligence for a wide range of platforms in diverse environments. The Executive Reasoning team in Pilot is responsible for enabling executive decision making by an agent or team-of-agents toward achieving complex and diverse missions. Capabilities to enable mission decomposition, task assignment and scheduling across teams of agents, contingency management and attrition handling are developed by this team.

As the Lead for Executive Reasoning, you will lead a group of engineers enabling execution of complex fully autonomous multi-agent missions on the edge in diverse adversarial environments. You will work closely with talented engineers to architect core systems, set standards for software engineering, drive strategic technical improvements, and mentor other engineers.
What you'll do:
Lead the technical direction and roadmapfor a range of Cognition capabilities including but not limited to robot team management, multi-agent task assignment, task scheduling & coordination, intelligent failure handling, intelligent attrition management, and system explainability
Enable intuitive and easy workflows for SDK customers to develop customizations and extensions to successfully achieve their autonomy objectives and aspirations
Serve as the architect for the Executive Reasoning stack to enable modularity, correctness and extensibility
Grow & mentor the autonomy and software engineers in the team via performance feedback, technical guidance and code reviews
Ensure high morale and excitement in the team by connecting day-to-day efforts to the big picture, ensuring alignment of personal goals with company objectives, and actively taking steps to set them up for success
Grow the team by identifying gaps and projecting headcount needs
Lead planning and execution for the team to ensure informed team commitments and timely delivery of those commitments
Work in close collaboration with other Pilot teams (State-estimation, Object tracking, Path & Motion Planning, Mapping) to ensure correctness and cohesiveness of the overall Pilot product.
Work in collaboration with Program and Product managers to define a feasible technical roadmap for future autonomy solutions
Required Qualifications:
M.S in Computer science, Aerospace or related engineering field
9+ years of experience in engineering autonomous systems or equivalent engineering roles
3+ years of people leadership experience leading teams of 4+ people
Experience with path or behavior planning, motion planning or task planning
Demonstrated ability to take ideas from academic works, and polish them to enable production ready capabilities
Proficient in software delivery and managing execution toward tight timelines
Proficient with C++ 11 or newer in a production environment
Experience in a collaborative development environment, focused on continuous integration/delivery & test-driven development
Strong knowledge of modern software engineering best practices
Demonstrated record of working hard, strong communication skills, being a trustworthy teammate, and being kind to others
Strong organizational skills
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience in the autonomous vehicle industry
Ph.D. in Computer science, or related engineering field
5+ years of people leadership experience
Experience leading a team that shipped commercial grade products
Experience in productizing prototypes into commercial products