Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Pilot Integration – Expeditionary (R5208) at Shield AI
Boston, MA
$195,200–$292,800
Jul 20, 2026
Boston, MA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior technical leadership role focused on integrating and fielding autonomy software onto two unmanned aircraft platforms — one operational, one in development. The work spans flight-control interfaces, mission autonomy, payload integration, and multi-agent behaviors, coordinating across several internal engineering teams and external customers. Suits an experienced C++/Linux engineer with a background in complex embedded or autonomous systems integration.
Senior level · 7+ years · San Diego, CA · Secret clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $195,200–$292,800
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)
The role title carries no explicit seniority level; the title states no level. However, the 7+ years requirement, cross-team technical leadership scope, and ownership of complex integration efforts support a Senior classification.
SOC classification is Medium confidence. The role is primarily autonomy/embedded software development (C++, Linux, integration of flight-control and mission-autonomy software), which maps to Software Developers (15-1252). An alternative read as a systems-integration or embedded-systems specialist could point to 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other).
Degree requirement: the JD states 'BS/MS in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience' — the explicit 'or equivalent experience' escape means no hard degree gate; the degree requirement is set to None.
Clearance: the JD states 'Ability to obtain a SECRET clearance' — this is a hard gate on eligibility, not on currently holding a clearance.
Location: Shield AI's primary U.S. headquarters is San Diego, CA; the posting does not specify a single city but lists U.S. offices broadly. San Diego is used as the best-fit CBSA.
Docker, ARM embedded systems, and CI/CD appear together under the Preferred Qualifications section and are marked as preferred accordingly.
Several preferred qualifications (Group 3 UAS/VTOL experience, custom autopilot integration, EO/IR or ViDAR integration, long-endurance ISR missions, mentoring) name no specific named technology or tool and are omitted from the skills list per extraction rules.
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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