Staff Software Engineer, Perception (R5421) at Shield AI
Dallas, TX
$195,200–$292,800
Jul 27, 2026
Dallas, TX
Sep 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level ML engineer role on Shield AI's Hivemind Solutions Perception team, focused on designing, training, fine-tuning, and deploying vision, vision-language, and vision-language-action models for autonomous defense systems. The position spans the full ML lifecycle — from building data pipelines and evaluation frameworks to optimizing models for embedded hardware — and requires bridging cutting-edge AI research with production-ready autonomy capabilities. Strong candidates will have production computer vision experience and the ability to obtain a Secret clearance.
Senior level · 7+ years · San Diego, CA · Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $195,200–$292,800
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Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $133,871 (middle half $95,474–$167,770). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Aug 1, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The SOC classification is a close call: the role is heavily ML modeling and research (15-2051 Data Scientists) but also involves substantial production software engineering, data pipelines, and deployment infrastructure (15-1252 Software Developers). 15-2051 was chosen because model development, fine-tuning, and evaluation are the primary day-to-day activities.
The experience requirement is stated as a sliding scale tied to degree level (7 years with a Bachelor's, 6 with a Master's, 4 with a PhD, or equivalent). The 7-year figure is used as the overall years minimum since no degree is hard-required.
No specific office location is named in the posting beyond Shield AI's general multi-site presence; San Diego, CA is used as the CBSA based on Shield AI's known headquarters.
PyTorch and TensorFlow are listed together as 'such as' examples of ML frameworks — treated as interchangeable alternatives on a single required skill rather than two separate hard gates.
Vision-language models and vision-language-action models appear only under Preferred Qualifications.
A Secret clearance must be obtainable (not necessarily already held), which still constitutes a clearance gate per the posting's language ('Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance').
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): vision-language-action models.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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