Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy Capabilities - Space at Shield AI
Washington
$160,000–$240,000
Aug 4, 2026
Washington
Sep 25, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A Senior Software Engineer role on Shield AI's Autonomy Capabilities Team, focused on the space portfolio — building autonomy software for satellites and missile defense applications. Day-to-day work spans large-scale distributed optimization, automated tasking and scheduling, track fusion, and space vehicle motion/behavior planning, with ownership from design through deployment onto real platforms. Suits engineers with strong control systems or optimization backgrounds who can bridge rigorous theory and production-quality implementation.
Senior level · San Diego, CA · Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $160,000–$240,000
Quick apply — this platform usually takes a CV and a few fields.
“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
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 $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 Aug 6, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The posting lists offices across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific but does not specify a single primary location; San Diego, CA is used as the CBSA because Shield AI's headquarters is there and the role is not advertised as remote.
The clearance requirement is stated as 'ability to obtain a SECRET clearance or higher' — this is a gate on clearance eligibility, not on holding an active clearance today.
The simulation tools requirement ('AFSIM, NGTS, or similar') is listed under Required Qualifications; AFSIM is used as the primary skill with NGTS as an alternative, reflecting the 'or similar' framing.
The role sits at the intersection of advanced algorithms research and production software engineering; the alternative occupation 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is noted as a runner-up given the heavy R&D and autonomy-systems flavor, though the primary day-to-day work is building and shipping software.
No overall years-of-experience figure is stated in the posting; seniority is inferred from the 'Senior Software Engineer' title and the scope of responsibilities described.
ML/RL and swarm robotics appear only under Preferred Qualifications.
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
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.