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. Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology actively supports operations worldwide. This team operates at all levels of the command-and-control hierarchy (from advanced control laws, through motion planning, and up to advanced tactical behaviors and multi-agent coordination) and across a multitude of mission sets, platform types, and operational domains (e.g., aircraft kinematics/dynamics, trajectory design, optimization, information fusion, efficient algorithms, etc.) and software integration skillsets (e.g. structures, protocols, threading, interface management, etc.) An adecuado candidate is expected to address operational system needs through a multitude of advanced methodologies that blend traditional control system approaches with advanced optimization. You'll traditionally start with shorter-term R&D; efforts or aligned customer programs but with the intent that successful efforts will grow into larger, multi-year programs. As a Senior Software Engineer, you'll build and own autonomy behaviors that directly power our products, taking responsibility for key components from design through deployment. You'll work across teams to turn complex mission needs into reliable, scalable software, balancing near-term delivery with long-term maintainability and performance. Weapons Target Assignment– Employ cutting edge approaches for weapons target assignment and motion planning for fleets of space vehicles and interceptors that have critical roles in our national defense

Advance the State of the Art– Pioneer advanced topics in low-SWaP optimal control, tactical behavior management in cooperative and adversarial contexts, and information-aware planning





Rigorous Software Development– Develop high-performance software modules that are well-tested, have clear interfaces and span-of-control, and are ready for mid-to-high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) insertions

Cross-Functional Collaboration– Collaborate with cross-functional teams including perception, planning, simulation, hardware, and flight test to ensure seamless integration of autonomy solutions on real-world platforms

Deployment & Test Support– Deploy autonomy capabilities to real space vehicles, supporting analysis of mission logs to verify software performance and validate system operational effect

Travel Requirement– Members of this team typically travel around *****% of the year (to different office locations, customer sites, and flight integration events).

BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and/or similar degree, or equivalent practical experience

Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 4 years and a Master's degree; or 2 years with a PhD; Proficiency in programming languages such as C++ and Python, and familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS)

Significant background in one or several robotic technology areas related to control systems, motion planning, optimization, tactical behaviors, and/or distributed decision-making

AFSIM, NGTS, or similar) for testing and validation

Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot and optimize system performance

Experience across a breadth of methodologies from classical control through optimization and applied ML/RL

Full-time regular employee offer package:

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

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📌 Senior Software Engineer (PhD Required) (Madrid)
🏢 shieldai
📍 Madrid