Staff Engineer, Perception (R5611)

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 https://shield.ai/. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/shield-ai, X https://x.com/shieldaitech, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shield_ai, and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Shield_AI. Shield AI’s mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. We are seeking a Senior or Staff Robotics Perception Engineer to develop and deploy advanced perception and navigation capabilities for autonomous aircraft operating in complex and GNSS-denied environments. This role requires deep expertise in visual-inertial odometry (VIO), visual SLAM, vision-based navigation, state estimation, and camera–IMU sensor fusion. You will take algorithms from early-stage prototypes through embedded implementation, field testing, and flight validation on operational autonomous platforms. This is not a general AI/ML or object-detection role. We are looking for an engineer whose core expertise lies at the intersection of robotics perception, VIO/SLAM, state estimation, camera and inertial sensing, and real-time embedded deployment. What you'll do: - - Design, develop, and deploy VIO, visual SLAM, visual localization, and vision-based navigation capabilities for autonomous aircraft. - Develop robust state-estimation and sensor-fusion solutions using cameras, IMUs, and other onboard sensors. - Build geometric computer-vision components, including feature tracking, optical flow, pose estimation, triangulation, and visual localization. - Develop geo-localization and map-matching capabilities using satellite, aerial, or orthophoto imagery. - Integrate perception and navigation algorithms with flight-control and autonomy systems. - Implement and optimize algorithms in C++ for real-time operation on embedded Linux platforms. - Develop and maintain real-time camera and video-processing pipelines using technologies such as GStreamer and V4L2. - Optimize workloads for NVIDIA Jetson, Orin, or comparable embedded-compute platforms, including CUDA and TensorRT where appropriate. Required qualifications: - - Significant hands-on experience developing robotics perception or navigation systems. - Strong expertise in VIO, visual SLAM, vision-based navigation, or GNSS-denied localization. - Deep understanding of camera–IMU sensor fusion, state estimation, calibration, and time synchronization. - Strong knowledge of geometric computer vision, including feature tracking, optical flow, pose estimation, triangulation, and visual localization. - Experience deploying perception or navigation capabilities on UAS/UAVs or other autonomous robotic platforms. - Strong C++ development skills and experience working in Linux environments. Preferred qualifications: - - Experience with NVIDIA Jetson, Orin, or similar embedded-compute platforms. - Experience optimizing perception workloads using CUDA, TensorRT, or comparable acceleration technologies. - Hands-on experience with GStreamer, V4L2, camera pipelines, and real-time video processing. - Experience deploying containerized software to embedded platforms using Docker. - Experience with vision-based navigation, geo-localization, or map matching using satellite, aerial, or orthophoto imagery. - Familiarity with frameworks and libraries such as OpenVINS, VINS-Fusion, ORB-SLAM3, GTSAM, Ceres Solver, OpenCV, or Kalibr. #LI-LD2 #LD Our international teammates receive a comprehensive total rewards package aligned to your country office location. For full details on compensation and benefits, please consult your talent acquisition partner.