Shield AI · 8 hours ago
Senior Staff Engineer, State Estimation (R4453)
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$228K/yr - $342K/yr
2+ years expShield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company focused on protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. The Senior Staff Engineer will play a critical role in designing, developing, integrating, testing, and deploying navigation and state estimation algorithms for autonomous flight systems.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)Autonomous VehiclesDronesMachine LearningNational Security
Responsibilities
Research and develop state-of-the-art state estimation and navigation algorithms to enable resilient autonomy in challenging GPS-denied environments
Design and deploy production-grade C++ software for embedded robotic systems operating in dynamic, real-world environments
Build and maintain rigorous unit, integration, and system-level tests to ensure system robustness and safety
Develop and enhance modeling, calibration, and simulation tools for inertial and vision-based navigation systems
Contribute to roadmap planning, feature decomposition, and agile execution alongside a multidisciplinary team of autonomy engineers
Continuously enhance performance analysis, benchmarking, and validation pipelines to drive rapid innovation and improvement
Qualification
Required
M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science or a related field; Minimum 2+ years of related professional work experience if you have an M.S degree or 0 years if you have a new Ph.D graduate
Professional proficiency in modern C++ (C++11 or newer) and strong object-oriented design skills
Hands-on experience deploying low-latency C++ applications to embedded Linux platforms
Professional experience designing and implementing state estimation algorithms (e.g., EKF, UKF, Graph-based optimization)
Familiarity with VIO, SLAM, or multi-sensor fusion frameworks (e.g., gtsam, Ceres, OpenVINS)
Strong working knowledge of CI pipelines and automated testing frameworks for C++
Ability to independently deploy high-reliability code suitable for real-world autonomous systems
Familiarity with prototyping in Python or MATLAB is welcome, but this role demands professional C++ production deployment skills. Candidates whose primary experience is in MATLAB or Python are unlikely to find this position a good fit
Preferred
Deep understanding of graph-based optimization for state estimation
Experience developing vision-aided inertial navigation systems (VINS, VIO)
Experience with navigation sensor calibration (IMU, GPS, barometers, magnetometers, laser altimeters)
Experience in benchmarking and system validation for real-world navigation performance
Benefits
Bonus
Benefits
Equity
Temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Company
Shield AI
Shield AI is a deep-tech company that focuses on developing AI-powered systems to enhance the safety of service members and civilians.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Shield AI has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (3)
2024 (3)
2021 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$1.31BKey Investors
Hercules CapitalUS Innovative Technology FundSnowpoint Ventures
2025-03-06Series F· $240M
2023-12-29Debt Financing· $200M
2023-10-31Series F· $300M
Leadership Team
Gary Steele
Chief Executive Officer
Brandon Tseng
Co-Founder
Recent News
2026-01-24
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2026-01-19
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2026-01-19
Company data provided by crunchbase