Manager of Engineering, Autonomy Capabilities (R5412)

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube. 

The Autonomy Capabilities team develops the core functionality used to drive autonomous decision making for single- and multi-agent teams of platforms in pursuit of mission objectives. The team serves as a central technical discipline within Shield AI, driving consistent approaches across business portfolios while operating at every level of the command-and-control hierarchy, from advanced control laws and motion planning to tactical behaviors and multi-agent coordination. Our work spans a wide range of mission sets, platform types, and operational domains, including air, sea, and space.  The team combines strong technical fundamentals, including vehicle kinematics and dynamics, trajectory design, optimization, information fusion, and efficient algorithms, with the software engineering and integration rigor required to field these capabilities on real-world systems. We build autonomy that operates reliably within complex integration environments and delivers differentiated mission capabilities to U.S. and international defense customers.  Your team will build autonomy solutions for small, often air- or ground-launched platforms that operate individually or as part of collaborative multi-agent fleets, frequently in disconnected or air-gapped environments. The capabilities your team develops will span motion planning, tactical behaviors, track fusion, weapons-target assignment, and perception-aware decision-making.  You will own the team’s technical delivery, organizational health, and growth. A core part of the role is building and developing the team by hiring strong engineers, mentoring them through complex technical challenges, and creating opportunities for continued growth. You will remain technically engaged, helping define system architecture, guiding key design decisions, contributing directly where it best serves the team, and ensuring solutions are delivered from rapid prototyping through software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and live test exercises. Success in this role requires a leader who can balance technical depth with people leadership, navigate ambiguity across multiple programs, and translate evolving customer needs into autonomy capabilities that can be integrated, validated, and fielded. 

What You'll Do:

Lead and Grow the Team

– Manage a team of autonomy engineers, typically 5–10 people. Own performance, growth, leveling, engagement, and delivery while providing regular coaching, feedback, and technical mentorship.

Build the Team

 – Identify the skills needed within your area, partner closely with recruiting, conduct interviews, maintain a high hiring bar, and help close and onboard strong candidates.

Own Technical Delivery

– Lead autonomy capabilities from initial design through integration, validation, and field deployment. Translate program objectives into clear technical priorities, execution plans, and ownership across the team.

Set Technical Direction

 – Define technical approaches and architectures for mission autonomy, balancing reuse of existing Shield AI capabilities with new development required for specific platforms and missions.

Develop Tactical Autonomy

 – Guide the development of motion planning, tactical behaviors, multi-agent coordination, track fusion, perception-aware decision-making, and weapons- or sensor-target assignment for platforms operating in complex and communications-constrained environments.

Remain Technically Engaged

– Stay close to the co …