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Shield AIShield AIWashington, DC

Principal Engineer, Ground System Software

Principal Engineer leading software architecture and systems engineering integration for complex, mission-critical ground systems. Requires 8+ years software engineering and 3+ years architecture/leadership experience.

220k – 330k
On-site8+ YOEEmbedded Engineering

About the role

Software Architecture & Development

  • Participate in the development of software architectures for complex, distributed, and mission-critical systems.
  • Engage in software design activities from concept through deployment and sustainment.
  • Work with software responsible engineers to develop and model high-quality, scalable, maintainable software solutions using modern programming languages, frameworks & System Modeling Tools.
  • Develop, review and maintain architecture diagrams to support government reference architectures.
  • Engage with internal stakeholders to develop software architecture behavior diagrams/documents to support customer deliverables.
  • Communicate technical concepts effectively to engineering, program management, and customer stakeholders.

Systems Engineering Integration

  • Collaborate with systems engineers to derive software requirements from system-level requirements and operational needs.
  • Ensure software solutions maintain traceability to stakeholder, system, and subsystem requirements.
  • Participate in architecture trade studies and technical decision-making activities.
  • Support system decomposition, interface definition, and allocation of requirements.
  • Contribute to system design reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and related technical milestones.
  • Work closely with hardware, network, test, and integration teams to ensure end-to-end system performance.

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field.
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience.
  • 3+ years of software architecture or technical leadership experience.
  • Proficiency in a strongly typed programming language (e.g. C#, TypeScript, Java, C++) with exposure to lower-level systems or protocol integration.
  • Familiarity with software development lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies.
  • Understanding of systems engineering processes and standards.
  • Experience with requirements management and traceability practices.
  • Experience using version control and CI/CD tools.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience in aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, aviation, automotive, telecommunications, or other complex systems domains.
  • Experience with GCS software, mission planning tools, or real-time visualization platforms.
  • Familiarity with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodologies.
  • Experience with systems engineering tools such as Cameo Systems Modeler / MagicDraw, IBM DOORS Next, Jama Connect, Stell, JIRA, Confluence.
  • Experience with cloud-native architectures, containerization, and orchestration technologies.
  • Familiarity with Autonomy Government Reference Architectures, Open Mission Systems and Universal Command & Control Interface.

Desired Skills

  • Ability to operate effectively across multiple engineering disciplines.
  • Strong systems thinking and problem-solving abilities.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to translate complex system requirements into practical software solutions.
  • Experience balancing technical, programmatic, and operational constraints.
  • Strong leadership and collaboration skills.
  • Interface Control Documents (ICDs) development and management.

Skills

C#TypeScriptJavaC++CI/CDVersion ControlModel-Based Systems EngineeringCameo Systems ModelerMagicdrawIbm Doors NextJama ConnectJiraConfluenceCloud-Native ArchitecturesContainerization

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