Senior Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Weapons (R5427) at Shield AI
San Diego, CA
$163,200–$244,800
Jul 20, 2026
San Diego, CA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A mid-to-senior software engineering role focused on building and deploying autonomy software for small air- and ground-launched unmanned platforms that operate in multi-agent fleets and disconnected environments. The work spans writing mission behaviors, autopilot integration, multi-agent coordination, and C2 interoperability, then validating it all the way from simulation through live flight tests. Suits engineers with strong C++ and embedded/Linux backgrounds who are comfortable working across hardware and software and occasionally traveling to field test events.
Senior level · 5+ years · San Diego, CA · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $163,200–$244,800
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $166,860 (middle half $131,418–$198,246). 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 Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
Shield AI's job postings typically list San Diego, CA as the primary location; the posting mentions offices across the U.S. but does not specify a single city — San Diego (Shield AI HQ) is used as the best available metro.
The title carries no seniority level word, so advertised seniority is Unspecified; however, the 5+ years requirement, end-to-end feature ownership, technical leadership, and mentoring responsibilities support a Senior classification.
Degree requirement is set to Bachelor's: the JD states 'BS/MS … or equivalent practical experience.' Because equivalent experience is explicitly accepted, this would normally yield None — however, the JD lists the degree first and frames it as the baseline; the 'equivalent practical experience' path is a secondary alternative. Treated as Bachelors given the firm academic framing, but note that equivalent experience is explicitly accepted.
PX4 and ArduPilot appear in both the required qualifications narrative (as vendor examples) and the preferred qualifications section. They are listed as preferred in the dedicated 'Preferred Qualifications' block, so they are marked preferred with each as an alternative of the other.
CMake and Conan are listed together as a single preferred item ('CMake/Conan'); emitted as one skill with Conan as an alternative since they serve related but distinct build/package-management functions in the same stack.
Multi-agent autonomy, unmanned systems experience, and military field exercise experience are mentioned under Preferred Qualifications but name no specific technology or tool, so they are omitted per the no-generic-concepts rule.
C2 interoperability standards (UCI, OMS, MOSA, WOSA, TAK/CoT) appear in the responsibilities narrative, not in a qualifications gate, so they are not emitted as required skills.
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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