Senior Engineer, Safety-Critical Software (R5788)
San Diego · USD 160,000-250,000 / year · Onsite · Posted Sep 26, 2026
At a glance
- Workplace
- Onsite
- Location
- San Diego
- Salary
- USD 160,000-250,000 / year
About the role
- Shield AI is seeking a Senior Engineer to help design, develop, and integrate a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product.
- As a member of the Hivemind Foundations team, you will be responsible for C++ software development and turning safety-critical designs into reliable software.
Responsibilities
- Develop, integrate, and test configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) components that monitor autonomy behavior and support safe operation across representative platforms and scenarios.
- Adapt reusable C++ safety capabilities into production runtime components, including interface integration, configuration wiring, and unit, component, and integration tests.
- Implement real-time C++ code at the boundary between mission autonomy, high-assurance middleware, and flight-control interfaces.
- Integrate safety-critical software with aircraft hardware for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and flight-test campaigns, scaling from single-aircraft test points to multi-agent collaborative CONOPS.
- Strengthen engineering evidence through CI, static and dynamic analysis, focused code reviews, software documentation, software designs, ICDs, system models, test results, and traceability artifacts.
- Share safe software practices through code reviews, design discussions, and clear technical write-ups.
Requirements
- Strong C++ development experience, including modern C++, testing, debugging, and performance-aware design.
- Experience building software for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomy, aerospace, or similarly constrained systems.
- Experience integrating software with hardware, simulation, Hardware in the Loop (HIL), or production-like test environments and diagnosing reliability or performance issues.
- Familiarity with C++ software design patterns and the ability to work effectively within an existing architecture.
- Strong Git and Linux development skills, along with modern software development practices such as CI/CD and test-focused development.
- Ability to write clear technical documentation and collaborate across software, systems, test, and platform teams.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with autonomy middleware, interface definitions, Python-based configuration tooling, CMake, Conan, or reusable C++ library integration.
- Familiarity with high-reliability or safety-critical development practices, such as static analysis, coding standards, traceability, and requirements-based testing.
- Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards such as MISRA C++ or JSF AV C++.
- Hands-on experience with airworthiness or software assurance frameworks such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C, or equivalent safety standards.
- Experience taking a software component through verification, qualification, or certification evidence review.
Benefits
- Bonus
- Benefits
- Equity
- Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment for temporary employees)
Skills
- C++
- Modern C++
- Git
- Linux
- CI/CD
- Python
- CMake
- Conan
- MISRA C++
- JSF AV C++
