Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420)

shieldai· Flight System Integration
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📍 Washington, DCFull Time Employee💰 USD 163K–245K

About this role

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. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.  The Hivemind Solutions Perception team develops the next generation of perception capabilities for autonomous systems by combining state-of-the-art machine learning with the proven foundations of computer vision. The team advances how autonomous platforms understand and interpret the world by developing vision, vision-language (VLM), and vision-language-action (VLA) models that tackle core perception challenges such as object understanding, scene interpretation, and mission-relevant environmental awareness. Working at the intersection of research and production, our engineers build the data pipelines, supervised fine-tuning (SFT) workflows, evaluation frameworks, and deployment infrastructure needed to transform cutting-edge AI research into reliable, mission-ready perception capabilities.   In this role, you'll develop and deploy advanced machine learning models that solve real-world perception challenges for autonomous systems. You'll own major features from model development through deployment, working closely with machine learning researchers, perception engineers, autonomy engineers, and platform teams to bring cutting-edge AI capabilities into production. This is an ideal opportunity for engineers who enjoy solving difficult perception problems while building reliable, production-ready ML systems that operate on autonomous platforms in complex operational environments.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the salary for the Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) role at shieldai?
The listed salary for this Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) position at shieldai is USD 163K–245K. This is an Full Time Employee role.
Where is the Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) position at shieldai located?
This Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) role at shieldai is based in Washington, DC. The position is listed as on-site or hybrid. Check the full job description or apply directly to confirm the work arrangement.
Is the Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) role at shieldai full-time or part-time?
This is listed as a Full Time Employee position. It is posted as a Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) role in the Flight System Integration department at shieldai.
Which team or department does the Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) at shieldai belong to?
This Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) position is part of the Flight System Integration department at shieldai. See the full job description for more information about the team structure and responsibilities.
How do I apply for the Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) position at shieldai?
Click the "Apply Now" button on this page. You will be redirected to shieldai's official application portal hosted on lever where you can submit your application directly.
When was the Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) job at shieldai posted?
This Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420) position at shieldai was posted on Jul 28, 2026. Apply as soon as possible — early applications are often reviewed first.
Senior Software Engineer, Perception (R5420)
shieldai · 💰 USD 163K–245K
Apply for this role ↗

You'll be redirected to shieldai's official application page on Lever.