Staff Engineer, Autonomy (R5682)
- Level
- Staff
- Work type
- Hybrid · Melbourne
- Visa
- Not offered
Not stated in the posting: salary.
Open. First seen 22 October 2026.
About the role
Job Description:
Shield AI is a venture-backed defence technology company building intelligent autonomous systems for aircraft. Our mission is to protect service members and civilians through AI and autonomy.
We’re on the lookout for an experienced Staff Engineer, Autonomy to join our Hivemind Solutions team and help design, build, and deploy real-world autonomous capabilities for uncrewed systems. This is a hands-on engineering role, blending software development with robotics, perception, and path planning. You’ll be joining a high-performing team shaping the future of AI pilots for solving real-world problems.
If you’re a capable C++ developer with a passion for robotics and autonomy, this is your chance to make a real impact.
What you'll do:
As a Staff Engineer, Autonomy, you’ll work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, task & motion planning and controls.
- Design and implement autonomous behaviours for uncrewed aircraft.
- Work with real sensor data and build robust sensor fusion solutions.
- Develop and test autonomy systems in high-fidelity software and hardware in-the-loop simulations.
- Integrate Shield AI autonomy products together with third-party aircraft and systems.
- Collaborate across AI, robotics, and systems engineering teams to deliver integrated solutions.
- Contribute to architecture, code quality, design reviews and best practices.
- Lead and Mentor junior engineers
Required Qualifications:
- A tertiary level qualification in Computer Science, Mechatronics, Software Engineering, Aerospace, Robotics or a related field
- Significant professional experience in robotics, autonomy, perception or aerospace systems
- Strong experience in modern C++
- Significant experience in building and delivering reliable software systems, ideally in fast-paced environments
Preferred Qualifications:
- Prior experience with uncrewed systems, especially in the air domain
- Defence industry experience
- Significant experience in one or more of the following domains:
- State Estimation
- Real-Time Systems
- Guidance, Navigation and Control
- Path Planning
Eligibility
Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems, and this role supports that mission directly by working with Australian Government classified material. It requires an Australian Government security clearance at level.
You don't need to hold a clearance already, we will sponsor your clearance and support you, because mission first, people always. Australian citizenship is a mandatory requirement for this role. It is a condition of clearance eligibility set by the Australian Government, eligibility details are here: https://www.agsva.gov.au/applicants/eligibility-suitability
#LD
The team: AUS HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 25 open in AUS. 4 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in January: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
C++ (18 of 25), Linux (12 of 25), CI/CD (9 of 25), Python (9 of 25), Test Automation (9 of 25), Computer Vision (6 of 25), Embedded Systems (6 of 25)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Staff Engineer, Human Machine Interface (R6070) posted Sep 28
- Senior Engineer, Quality Assurance (R5985) posted Sep 24
- Engineer II, Modelling and Simulation (R5712) posted Sep 24
- Senior Engineer, Modelling and Simulation (R5702) posted Sep 9
- Engineer II, Autonomy (R5713) posted Sep 9
- Staff Engineer, Software Test (R5836) posted Sep 8
- Senior Engineer, Test (R5833) posted Sep 8
- Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy (R5837) posted Sep 8
- Staff Engineer, Modelling and Simulation (R5700) posted Sep 8
- Staff Engineer, Quality Assurance (R5799) posted Sep 8
- Senior Engineer, Autonomy (R5685) posted Sep 8
- Staff Deep Learning Engineer (R5677) posted Sep 8
- Senior Staff Deep Learning Engineer (R5675) posted Sep 8
- Staff C++ Build and Release Engineer (R5673) posted Sep 8
- Senior Engineer, C++ Software (R5848) posted Sep 8
- Senior Software Engineer, Embedded Linux Platform (R5718) posted Sep 8
- Staff Engineer, UI (R5832) posted Sep 4
- Senior Engineer, Engineering Tooling & Observability (R5720) posted Aug 24
- Senior Software Engineer Tooling & Observability (R5717) posted Aug 24
- Senior Staff Technical Program Manager (R5595) posted Aug 8
- Senior Engineer, Computer Vision (C++) (R5195) posted Jul 15
- Senior/Staff Engineer, C++ Software - Edge Systems (R5191) posted Jun 11
- Senior Staff Engineer, Systems posted Jun 1
- Computer Vision Engineer (C++) (R4633) posted Jan 14
From the team and dates on Shield AI's own job board.
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