Senior Principal Engineer, GNC & State Estimation (R6233)

Shield AI is hiring a Senior Principal Engineer, GNC & State Estimation (R6233) in San Diego, United States. It pays $260k-$390k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

AI in this role

Lead technical direction and development of GNC and state estimation for autonomous AI flight systems.

hivemind

guidance-navigation-and-controlstate-estimationflight-controlsalgorithmssoftware-engineering

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.

Job Description:

As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will establish and lead the technical direction of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) and State Estimation within Hivemind Enterprise (HME). You will build the team and capabilities that enable customers to develop, integrate, validate, and deploy reliable autonomy across aircraft platforms.

You will bring at least 15 years of GNC domain experience, deep expertise in aircraft dynamics, flight controls, navigation, and state estimation, and a demonstrated record of delivering production autopilot or flight-control software. As a hands-on technical leader, you will develop algorithms, contribute production software, guide critical engineering decisions, and establish a fast, rigorous development cycle spanning simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and flight testing.

Working with stakeholders across Hivemind Enterprise, Hivemind Solutions, and Shield AI’s aircraft organizations, you will define HME’s GNC and State Estimation technical roadmap and translate it into reusable platform capabilities and customer deliverables. You will help drive our Runtime Assurance (RTA) solution and deliver the required capabilities that will help our customers develop the technical evidence needed to support airworthiness of their platforms.

This role combines senior individual-contributor leadership with the opportunity to establish a new engineering team. You will attract and mentor exceptional engineers and build trusted relationships with GNC and State Estimation leaders throughout Shield AI.

How we rate this

Senior Principal Engineer, GNC & State Estimation (R6233) at Shield AI rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

Key facts

Senior Principal Engineer, GNC & State Estimation (R6233) is an open job at Shield AI.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $260k-$390k a year.
The role is based in San Diego, California.
The job was posted on October 9, 2026.
Seniority: lead.
Applications are handled by Shield AI. Apply on Shield AI

Prepare for this job

A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Guidance Navigation And ControlState EstimationFlight ControlsAlgorithmsSoftware EngineeringHivemind

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where guidance navigation and control was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where state estimation was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where flight controls was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where algorithms was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Guidance Navigation And Control, State Estimation, Flight Controls, Algorithms, and Software Engineering. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

Want an expert to read your CV for this job?

Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. We reply by email within 2 to 4 business days.

Get a free CV review Check your resume with the ATS resume checker

Get new software engineering jobs (Builds AI ●●●●) by email

One email a week with the new software engineering jobs (Builds AI ●●●●), each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.

Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.