Senior Staff Engineer, Autonomy and Motion Planning

About the role

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company working to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. The company builds the Hivemind autonomy software, the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and the Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. As a Senior Staff Engineer focused on autonomy and motion planning, you will work on the core software that lets uncrewed aircraft plan and execute movement in complex, changing environments. You will sit in the London office within an international engineering organisation that spans the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. Motion planning sits at the heart of what makes these systems useful. You will design algorithms that let aircraft decide where to go, how to avoid obstacles, and how to behave when conditions change. The work combines deep algorithmic thinking with practical engineering, because plans have to run on real hardware in real missions. As a senior staff engineer, you are expected to set technical direction, review the work of others, and carry designs from concept to fielded capability. The role carries a high degree of autonomy and responsibility, and the people around you will look to you for decisions that shape how the aircraft fly.

Key facts

What you'll do

Design and implement motion planning algorithms for uncrewed aerial systems within the Shield AI portfolio.

Build software components that integrate directly into the Hivemind autonomy stack and interact with mission-critical services.

Formulate plans that remain robust under uncertainty, sensor noise, and the presence of unexpected obstacles in dynamic environments.

Integrate motion planners tightly with perception, localisation, and high-level decision-making modules to ensure coherent system behavior.

Test algorithms extensively in simulation using Aechelon synthetic reality environments to evaluate performance across diverse scenarios.

Validate planner behavior and performance on real V-BAT and X-BAT platforms during integration campaigns and field evaluations.

Set technical direction for the motion planning area, defining architecture, roadmap, and best practices as a senior engineer.

Review code, design documents, and trade studies from other engineers and provide clear, actionable, and constructive feedback.

Collaborate with hardware engineers to understand sensor characteristics, actuator limits, and mechanical constraints that affect planning.

Improve the speed, efficiency, and robustness of planning algorithms so they execute within strict real-time computational budgets.

Document algorithms, trade studies, design decisions, and rationales so that knowledge persists and remains accessible to the team.

Support integration campaigns, debug complex issues that only manifest in field environments, and ensure smooth handoffs between teams.

Contribute to the broader autonomy stack by proposing improvements, leveraging libraries, and exploring novel techniques in motion planning.

Work alongside product managers and stakeholders to translate operational requirements into technical specifications and planning constraints.

Drive experiments that measure planner performance, quantify risk, and validate that system behavior meets stringent safety and reliability standards.

Requirements

Demonstrate deep experience in autonomous systems, robotics, or motion planning, with a track record of delivering complex capabilities.

Bring a strong background in algorithm design, including search methods, optimization techniques, and sampling-based approaches.

Show professional experience programming in C++ or Python within robotics or autonomy applications, with a focus on performance and reliability.

Possess a solid understanding of core autonomy concepts such as obstacle avoidance, path planning, and vehicle dynamics.

Have experience taking algorithms from simulation environments into real hardware, including debugging discrepancies and adapting models.

Communicate effectively across disciplines, explaining complex technical ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Work comfortably in a defense and national security context, understanding the constraints and requirements of mission-critical operations.

Maintain a proven record of leading technical work, mentoring peers, and reviewing designs and code to high standards.

Be willing to travel for integration campaigns, test flights, and customer engagements as required by project needs.

Nice to have

Possess experience with motion planning specifically for fixed-wing aircraft or VTOL platforms and their unique dynamics.

Apply optimization methods used in trajectory generation, including numerical techniques and constrained optimization approaches.

Have a background in building or using simulation environments for autonomy, including modeling sensors and dynamics.

Have direct experience with the Hivemind software or similar autonomy stacks used in defense applications.

Understand how perception systems feed planning decisions, including sensor fusion, detection, and uncertainty modeling.

Bring experience with real-time software development and embedded systems constraints that impact planning performance.

Practical notes

This is a senior technical role, so expectations for judgment, ownership, and decision-making are high.

You may need to obtain security clearance or pass equivalent vetting depending on the nature of the work.

The office is located in London, with close collaboration across global sites and time zones using digital tools.

Work is mission oriented, so schedules and deadlines sometimes shift to meet operational needs and integration timelines.

Simulation work is performed daily, with occasional involvement in field-test activities to validate algorithms in real-world conditions.

Project highlights

Expanding Hivemind capabilities so aircraft can operate reliably in denied or contested areas with minimal connectivity.

Improving how planners handle dynamic obstacles, moving platforms, and changing environmental conditions.

Closing the gap between simulated behavior in Aechelon and real-world performance on physical aircraft.

Supporting V-BAT and X-BAT programs with robust, high-performance motion planning integrated into operational workflows.

Why you should apply

The work directly protects service members and civilians in real operational scenarios where autonomy matters.

You will shape technical direction at a senior level, influencing architecture and strategy rather than only executing tasks.

The team works at the edge of what autonomy software can achieve today, tackling difficult problems in perception, planning, and control.

You will see your algorithms deployed on real aircraft, observing their behavior in live flights and field operations.

The company is venture-backed and scaling quickly, with strong momentum, resources, and executive leadership supporting ambitious goals.