Principal Software Engineer, Frontend/Full Stack - Shield AI

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company whose mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. In pursuit of this mission, Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot. Its AI pilot, Hivemind, has flown a fighter jet (F-16), a vertical takeoff and landing drone (V-BAT), and a quadcopter (Nova). The company has offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington DC and abroad. Shield AI’s products and people are currently in the field actively supporting operations with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. allies. 

Hivemind Design (HMD) is an innovative simulation, data science, and infrastructure team at Shield AI. We own the tools for designing, developing, testing, deploying and evaluating instances of the Hivemind AI pilot and commander. Our software products enable companies to construct and control sophisticated autonomous systems, and therefore we are transforming the future of autonomy. We are committed to excellence, driving innovations that prepare autonomous agents for the most critical missions. 

The Hivemind Design product is Shield AIs AI Factory; a service-oriented architecture leveraged through an SDK, CLI, and web portal. Our focus is on leveraging both virtualized and bare-metal infrastructure to orchestrate autonomous agents in sophisticated simulations, dynamically configure test beds, and pioneer software configurations and deployments on robotic systems. The HMD team is not only solving problems; we are tasked with setting new benchmarks in technology and delivering unparalleled user experiences. 

We pride ourselves on a diverse team of experts from fields such as computer science, aerospace, game design, and distributed simulation systems. This diversity fuels our innovative spirit, in an environment that values creativity, teamwork, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.  

As a Principal Engineer you’ll help lead the development of the HMD product web portal and integrated installer. Our web portal provides a user interface for Operators to rehearse missions, plan scenarios, and analyze performance. It also provides a central location for autonomy engineers to interact with Hivemind software and communicate with other teams. Were looking for an engineer with a visionary outlook and a solid track recordof delivering great user interfaces.  

What you’ll do:

• Build custom editors to configure and execute simulations of autonomous aircraft 

• Develop user interfaces for interacting with large multi-dimensional datasets 

• Incorporate technologies such as Web RTC for interactive 3D simulations 

• Contribute to an integrated installer UI for Hivemind software 

• Contribute to mission planning interfaces for autonomous vehicles 

Required Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 14 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 12 years experience; or equivalent experience.

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in designing and developing production quality software systems. 

• 6+ years experience developing software to interface with web APIs, including proficiency with gRPC and RESTful APIs. 

• 3+ years demonstrated experience with React/Node/Typescript and Material UI 

• BS/MS in Computer Science, similar degree, or equivalent practical experience 

• Demonstrated record of working hard, being a trustworthy teammate, holding yourself and others to high standards, and being kind to others  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with geospatial data and WebGL   

• Experience applying design systems to UI components  

• Experience with Web RTC 

• Eye for design and UX sensibilities 

• Hands-on experience with a major cloud platform (Azure, GCP, AWS)  

• Experience with Linux, Docker, and CI/CD environments  

• Experience with WebSockets and Electron (or similar)  

• Experience with Playwright UI testing  

$210,119.60 - $315,179.40 a year