Manager of Engineering - Autonomous Pilot Integration

What you'll do

• Lead the Team — Manage an engineering team (typically 5–10 engineers spanning multiple emerging-domain efforts); 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.
• Stand Up New Programs — Stand up autonomy on new platforms and missions — often as the first autonomy engineering presence on the program. Define what the autonomy stack looks like, decide what to build versus what to leverage from existing Shield AI capabilities, and set the technical direction for the effort.
• Navigate Ambiguity & Shifting Priorities — Operate effectively in an environment where program shape, scope, and timeline often shift. Make sound technical and staffing decisions with incomplete information, communicate changes clearly to your team and stakeholders, and protect engineering velocity through churn.
• Develop & Field Autonomy — Develop & integrate autonomy software solutions onto emerging-domain platforms — satellites, USVs/UUVs, unmanned helicopters, and similar — including platform and autopilot integration, payload and sensor integration, mission behaviors, and validation across software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, vehicle-in-the-loop, and live test events.
• 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.
• Platform Team Partnerships — Build strong partnerships with each platform team that owns the underlying hardware (spacecraft, vessel, rotorcraft, or other autonomous system) — coordinating on platform changes, autopilot or control-interface evolution, sensor integration, and release planning.
• Collaboration Across Teams & Partners — Act as a primary technical interface with the Autonomy Capabilities, Perception, and GCS teams, feature crews, and customer/program offices (U.S. and international); 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; coordinate hardware/software compatibility, mission readiness, and release cadence with capability and platform teams.
• On-site Test & Mission Support — Travel to test sites, customer exercises, and demonstrations to support live mission operations — flight tests, range exercises, on-water trials, satellite ground tests, and similar — 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 C2 providers and drive compliance against common message and open-systems standards relevant to each program (e.g., UCI, OMS, STANAG 4586 for aerial systems, and program-appropriate standards for maritime and space).
• Grow R&D into Programs — Work with leadership and customers to evolve successful short-term R&D efforts into larger, longer-term programs; help shape pursuit strategy and scope as programs mature.

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 impact

Nice-to-haves / Preferred

• Travel Requirement – Members of this team typically travel around 20-30% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, test events, and integration events)