Software Engineer, API's & Infrastructure (R2609)
San Diego Metro Area
Hivemind Product Division – Forge /
Full Time Employee /
On-site
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind Enterprise—EdgeOS, Pilot, Commander, and Forge—as well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.
Job Description:
As a software engineer for our Hivemind Commander (HMC) team, you'll play a major role in shaping the technical vision for our foundational C++ services and public-facing APIs. The HMC Core Product is an extensible platform that enables human operators, third-party systems, and distributed teams to interact with active Hivemind Pilot (HMP) autonomy systems and aircraft. You'll help establish API standards and architectural principles that empower both internal and external distributed teams to build reliable integrations for mission planning, mission monitoring, and command & control workflows. Your technical leadership will help ensure our APIs scale globally while maintaining the high reliability standards required for mission-critical defense applications.
What you'll do:
- Contribute to the architecture and evolution of HMC's core C++ services and public-facing APIs, ensuring scalability and reliability across distributed teams
- Design and manage API contracts, versioning strategies, and documentation that enable seamless integration for internal and external partners
- Lead cross-functional collaboration with distributed teams to define interfaces that support mission planning, monitoring, and C2 workflows
- Drive the development of a robust command and control product with comprehensive documentation for customer and third-party use
- Establish service patterns, security frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines that maintain API quality and backward compatibility
- Mentor junior engineers on C++ best practices, API design principles, and distributed systems architecture to build team capabilities
Required qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience developing large-scale, production C++ systems with proven architectural leadership
- Expertise in modern C++ (C++17 and beyond) with deep experience designing and managing public-facing APIs
- Strong background in API lifecycle management, versioning, and maintaining contracts across distributed teams
- Professional experience with Linux environments, microservices, and distributed systems
- Demonstrated record of technical leadership, working effectively with geographically distributed teams, and delivering mission-critical systems
Preferred qualificaitons:
- Experience with aerospace/defense industries, particularly command and control, mission planning, and UAV systems
- Knowledge of military interoperability standards (STANAG 4586, MAVLINK, UCI) and real-time data distribution
- Experience building secure, multi-tenant API platforms for government or defense customers
- Background in leading technical initiatives across matrix organizations with distributed stakeholders
- Track record of mentoring engineers and fostering collaborative development practices
$179,000 - $330,000 a year
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Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
