Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (R5788)
San Diego · USD 200,000-300,000 / year · Onsite · Posted Oct 8, 2026
At a glance
- Workplace
- Onsite
- Location
- San Diego
- Salary
- USD 200,000-300,000 / year
About the role
- Shield AI is seeking a Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer to design, develop, and integrate a Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product for autonomous systems. You will work within the Hivemind Foundations team to ensure safety, predictability, and effectiveness for aircraft platforms like the X-BAT. This role involves driving principled software development practices and mentoring developers to enhance software quality and assurance.
Responsibilities
- Drive architecture, development, integration and testing of an extensible, configurable Run-Time Assurance (RTA) module.
- Ensure safe operation of autonomous systems in diverse, adversarial conditions.
- Design and integrate with low-assurance mission-autonomy software and high-assurance middleware.
- Specialize, integrate and test RTA capability on diverse platforms to ensure robust fail-safe behavior.
- Drive principled software development practices including code analysis, audit trails, and review processes.
- Generate artifacts for software certifiability, including static/dynamic analysis reports, documentation, ADRs, ICDs, and system models.
- Mentor and guide Foundations developers on safe software development practices.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree with 10+ years of experience, Master’s with 9+ years, or PhD with 7+ years (or equivalent).
- Demonstrated excellence in designing and developing C++ based safety-critical software systems with Real-Time guarantees.
- Experience mentoring other engineers and driving software best practices.
- Experience integrating software on real-world physical systems.
- Deep expertise in C++ software architecture design patterns.
- Strong knowledge of software assurance certifications such as DO-178C and MIL-HDBK-516.
- Strong Git and Linux development skills.
- Proficiency in modern software development practices like CI/CD and test-driven development.
- Track record of technical leadership and setting high standards.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience developing against strict C++ coding standards (e.g., MISRA C++, JSF AV C++).
- Hands-on experience with airworthiness certifications such as MIL-HDBK-516, DO-178C.
- Experience taking a solution through a certification process and achieving a certification.
Benefits
- Bonus
- Benefits
- Equity
Skills
- C++
- Git
- Linux
- CI/CD
- Test-Driven Development
- MISRA C++
- JSF AV C++
- DO-178C
- MIL-HDBK-516
