Staff Engineer, Modelling and Simulation (R6248)

Shield AI•San Diego, CA

1d•$150,000 - $230,000

About The Position

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-technology company whose mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. The Hivemind Simulation team provides simulation capabilities for training and evaluating next-generation autonomous AI pilots. The Simulation Platform team builds the simulation framework and foundational infrastructure that lets engineers integrate simulators, scale experiments, and evaluate autonomy before flight. Its goal is to provide simulation applications with a shared, performant, and extensible foundation so autonomy does not know it is in a simulation. As a Staff Software Engineer on the Simulation Platform team, you will build and integrate simulators and develop Monte Carlo infrastructure to support testing of autonomous pilots. You will draw on experience building and operating real-time aircraft simulations to enable evaluation of autonomy, guidance, navigation, and control (GNC), and runtime assurance (RTA) systems at scale. This individual-contributor position includes driving technical direction and mentoring engineers.

Requirements

Typically, at least 10 years of related experience with a bachelor's degree, 9 years with a master's degree, 7 years with a Ph.D., or equivalent work experience.
Strong proficiency in C++, with demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and maintaining production performance-critical software.
Demonstrated experience building and running multithreaded or multiprocess real-time simulations involving aircraft dynamics.
Experience both developing Monte Carlo infrastructure and using it to design, execute, and analyze simulation campaigns.
Demonstrated ability to drive technical decisions, mentor engineers, and collaborate across software and domain engineering teams.
Experience developing software or simulations under a defined verification and validation (V&V) lifecycle.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting airworthiness certification efforts, including developing simulation evidence for verification, validation, and safety assessment (e.g., DO-178C, MIL-HDBK-516C).
Strong Python skills for simulation tooling, experiment automation, and analysis.
Experience with distributed simulation and model interoperability standards such as HLA, DIS, and FMI/FMU.
Experience with industry-standard simulation tools such as JSBSim, FlightGear, X-Plane, Gazebo, Isaac Sim, or Simulink, or equivalent environments.
Experience with closed-loop autonomy simulation, including sensor inputs and interfaces between autonomy and the simulated environment.
Experience with uncertainty modeling, statistical analysis, and scenario coverage for Monte Carlo evaluation.
Experience testing or operating safety-critical software (e.g., DO-178C).

Responsibilities

Grow the simulation framework ecosystem by integrating existing simulators and established standards, and building new simulators where needs are identified.
Build reusable Monte Carlo infrastructure for parameterization, execution, reproducibility, and results collection across large simulation campaigns.
Develop multithreaded and multiprocess simulation capabilities, addressing synchronization, timing, state exchange, and performance.
Partner with autonomy, GNC, and RTA engineers, as well as field operators, to translate evaluation needs into simulation interfaces and infrastructure.
Support platform-specific performance validation using physics models such as 6DoF and 3DoF.
Set technical direction, lead design reviews, and mentor engineers in simulation architecture and production software development.