# Manager of Engineering - Autonomous Pilot Integration
**Company:** [Shield AI](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/shield-ai)
**Location:** Dallas, TX, Washington, DC
**Salary:** $220K-$330K
**Experience:** 7+ years
**Skills:** C++, Linux, Embedded Systems, Middleware, Pub-Sub, Ipc, Vtol, Multi-Agent Autonomy, Icd Authoring, Real-Time Systems
**Posted:** 2026-06-12
> Lead a 5-10 person autonomy engineering team building and fielding mission autonomy software for V-BAT and X-BAT unmanned aircraft. Own hiring, mentoring, technical direction, aircraft-team integration, and on-site test support.
## Job Description
## What you'll do

- **Lead the Team** — Manage a small-to-mid-sized engineering team (typically 5–10 engineers); own performance, growth, leveling, and delivery; run 1:1s, performance reviews, and team rituals.
- **Grow the Team via Hiring** — Drive hiring for your area: identify the skills you need, partner with recruiting, run interviews, set the bar, and personally close strong candidates.
- **Grow Engineers Technically** — Mentor engineers through hard problems; create stretch opportunities; give direct, actionable technical feedback; help engineers level up in both skill and impact.
- **Aircraft Team Partnership** — Maintain an exceptionally close, daily working relationship with the aircraft team that builds and maintains V-BAT — coordinating continuously on platform changes, autopilot interface evolution, sensor integration, hardware/software compatibility, and release planning. For X-BAT, work closely with the aircraft team to define and integrate the flight-autonomy interface.
- **Develop & Field Autonomy** — Develop & integrate autonomy software solutions onto V-BAT, including payload and sensor integration (e.g., payload computer bring-up, ViDAR, EO/IR), integration with the custom V-BAT autopilot and its control modes (e.g., HSA, waypoint), multi-agent coordination, and customer release cadence — and lead a small team through the design, development, and delivery of a major capability or program.
- **Technical Leadership** — Lead a small feature crew or sub-program; set technical direction, break down work, unblock the team, and report progress to leadership and stakeholders.
- **Hands-on Technical Contribution** — Stay active in the code; contribute directly where it serves the team — prototyping new capabilities, taking on deep technical analysis of hard problems, or absorbing critical work during demo crunch.
- **Collaboration Across Teams & Partners** — Act as a primary technical interface with the Autonomy Capabilities team (motion planning, tactics), the Perception team, the GCS team, feature crews, the Strategic Systems (ACP) portfolio, and customer/program offices (U.S. and international services); author and negotiate ICDs and interface contracts.
- **Design & Documentation** — Drive design reviews, ICDs, and post-mortems for your area; push the team toward higher rigor and close process gaps that span teams.
- **Pre-deployment Preparation** — Own the build, configuration, and validation process for mission-ready systems and customer releases; coordinate hardware/software compatibility, mission readiness, release cadence, and operator-facing workflow validation.
- **On-site Test & Mission Support** — Travel to test sites, customer exercises, and operator training/deployment events to support live mission operations (flight tests, range exercises, multi-agent live events, customer demonstrations, and fielded operator support), including safety checks, system bring-up, and troubleshooting under time-critical constraints.
- **Hardware/Software Debugging** — Diagnose and resolve integration issues across complex autonomy stacks, payload computers, and embedded systems in lab and field environments — including memory, CPU, and timing profiling under operationally-representative loads.
- **Mission Data & Debrief Support** — Capture mission and test data, reproduce issues in simulation, and partner with autonomy capability owners to drive fixes back into the next build.
- **Continuous Improvement** — Build tools and processes to improve integration timelines, test/mission reliability, and team efficiency across deployment cycles.
- **C2 Interoperability & Standards** — Own the interface contracts with GCS and C2 providers and drive compliance against common message and open-systems standards (e.g., STANAG 4586, UCI, OMS).

## Required qualifications

- BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience
- Typically requires a minimum of 7 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 5 years and a Master's degree; or 4 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience
- 2+ years of direct people-management experience (running 1:1s, performance reviews, hiring decisions, growth planning)
- Demonstrated experience building or growing an engineering team — including interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new engineers
- Track record of mentoring engineers and growing their technical skill and career trajectory
- Demonstrated experience leading a small technical team or owning a major capability from design through field delivery
- Experience authoring or negotiating interface contracts / ICDs with internal or external stakeholders
- Direct experience with Group 3 unmanned aircraft, VTOL platforms, or comparable medium-sized unmanned systems
- Experience with multi-agent autonomy
- Strong proficiency in C++, with experience developing or integrating real-time or latency-sensitive systems
- Proficiency in Linux-based development and experience working with embedded systems, shell scripting, and system diagnostics
- Familiarity with middleware, pub-sub, or IPC

## Nice-to-haves / Preferred

- Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 20-30% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, operator training and deployment events, and integration events)
**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/manager-of-engineering-autonomous-pilot-integration-at-shield-ai-54e5b77f-70c4-40f1-afa9-217e6c4867b6
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