Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (R5788)

Shield AI is hiring a Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (R5788) in San Diego, United States. It pays $200k-$300k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

AI in this role

Design and develop safety-critical software and run-time assurance products for Hivemind intelligent autonomous aircraft systems.

software-engineeringsafety-critical-systemsrun-time-assurancerobotics

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:

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to help drive the design, development, and integration of a safety critical Run-Time Assurance (RTA) product. The Hivemind Foundations team is responsible for a suite of core products and capabilities that brings resilient autonomy and intelligence to aircraft and other platforms operating in complex environments. The RTA product that the Foundations team develops is a real-time safety capability that helps keep autonomy safe, predictable, and effective at the edge.

As a member of the Foundations team, you will be responsible for driving C++ software development against rigorous coding standards and requirements, integration of reusable safety capabilities into production systems, defining clean interfaces and tests, and turn safety-critical designs into reliable software that can fly, including support for X-BAT, Shield AI's flagship Group 5 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) UAV.

How we rate this

Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (R5788) at Shield AI rates 85 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

Staff Safety-Critical Software Engineer (R5788) is an open job at Shield AI.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $200k-$300k a year.
The role is based in San Diego, California.
The job was posted on October 8, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
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

Software EngineeringSafety Critical SystemsRun Time AssuranceRoboticsC

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where safety critical systems was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where run time assurance was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where robotics was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used C in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, Safety Critical Systems, Run Time Assurance, Robotics, and C. 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.

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