Senior Software Engineering Manager, Ground Systems (R2624)

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.    
As a key, hands-on leader within the Hivemind on X solutions organization, you will lead, mentor, manage, and hire a growing team of talented software engineers working on complex C++ backend autonomy and frontend software integration projects that leverage and extend our Hivemind Enterprise product for mission critical customer solutions on aircraft platforms like V-BAT, XQ-58, and F-16 for mission sets that include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).
You will be responsible for ground system integration, to include guiding the technical direction of the team, ensuring high-quality software delivery, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to achieve strategic goals. You'll have the opportunity to work closely with talented frontend and backend engineers, technical leadership, designers, and product and program managers to deliver highly reliable, fault tolerant software to command-and-control teams of intelligent and autonomous aircraft to deliver first-in-class capabilities to the U.S. military and international customers. Your overarching objective is to be a candid, fearless leader, demonstrating grit and leading by example to improve the overall quality and reliability of our product solutions to protect service members and civilians with intelligent AI systems. (This role is generally 80% technical leadership and 20% people management.) 

What You'll Do:

• Team Leadership: Lead, mentor, and develop a team of C++ software engineers in a fast-paced, high-intensity environment, providing guidance on technical challenges, best practices, and career development. 
• Technical Direction: Define and implement technical strategies and standards for C++ development, ensuring alignment with long-term roadmaps. 
• Software Architecture & Implementation: Work in the code base, implementing solutions to poorly-defined problems involving many external dependencies, moderate-to-high uncertainty, and unknown solution space. 
• Software/Hardware Integration & Test: Drive the integration and testing of software components and hardware systems, ensuring seamless interoperability and compatibility with existing infrastructure. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define integration strategies and resolve integration issues. Own team outcomes all the way through from code review to software-in-the-loop (SIL) to real-world flight testing. 
• Agile Project Management: Oversee the agile planning, execution, and delivery of C++/React/TypeScript integration projects, ensuring they meet quality, schedule, and budget requirements in partnership with project managers and technical leaders. 
• Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, architects, QA, and other stakeholders to deliver high-quality software that meets business requirements. 
• Code Reviews and Quality Assurance: Ensure code quality through code reviews, automated testing, and other quality assurance practices. 
• Problem Solving: Resolve complex technical issues, providing guidance and solutions to the engineering team. 
• Continuous Improvement: Understand and follow engineering processes and cross-functional best practices with enough comprehension to drive improvements in rigor and speed across engineering. Promote a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging innovation, adopting new technologies, and optimizing development processes and documentation. 
• Recruitment and Onboarding: Participate in recruiting activities to attract top talent and oversee the onboarding process for new hires. 

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of hands-on experience designing and developing production quality software systems. 
• 2+ years of people management experience with teams of 4 or more people. 
• 5+ years of experience in C++11 or later in a production environment. 
• Strong foundation of C++ API design and integration. 
• Proficient in Linux development environments leveraging common tooling like Git, Bash, Docker, and Visual Studio Cod