Founded in 2015, 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 and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft. 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
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JOB DESCRIPTION:
The Aircraft Simulation team turns frontier autonomy into mission-ready aircraft. We own the commit-to-flight pipeline—deterministic aircraft and mission simulation, HITL/SITL integration, CI/CD, and tooling for automated flight qualification testing. Our goal is simple: make AI fly—safely, reliably, and fast.
As a Senior Modeling & Simulation Engineer, you will be dedicated to Shield AI’s next-generation aircraft program, contributing to our modeling and simulation tooling pipeline. You’ll design, build, and scale novel aircraft subsystem models, develop infrastructure that enables automated testing for our XBAT product line, and perform verification and validation of simulation pipelines. You will also conduct system performance analysis to evaluate expected and actual flight and mission performance using simulation tools and publish results for consumption by customers.
What You'll Do
Develop models and infrastructure for the integrated simulation pipeline in C++
Design deterministic, high-performance simulation tools capable of faster-than-real-time execution for development, testing, and release.
Implement test scenarios and write unit, system, and regression tests.
Collaborate across autonomy, embedded, GNC, and test engineering to ensure the simulation mirrors real aircraft behavior and mission scenarios.
Contribute to platform-agnostic simulation tooling to accelerate future development efforts
Perform verification and validation (V&V) analysis activities on model tools.
Conduct system performance analysis and generate reports and visualizations.
Utilize best practices in C++, simulation architecture, and performance engineering.
Required Qualifications
BS or MS in Computer Science, Aerospace, Robotics, or related field.
5+ years of experience in software development, with emphasis on modern C++ (C++17 or later) and performance optimization.
Strong understanding of rigid-body dynamics, kinematics, and basic flight and sensor mechanics.
Proven experience developing or integrating simulation systems for robotics, aerospace, or autonomous systems.
Ability to debug complex build and runtime environments (CMake, CPM, package management, logging, & profiling tools).
Experience with software testing tools (GTest, etc.)
Experience with model V&V.
Strong collaboration and communication skills across software, hardware, and systems disciplines.
Ability to obtain a S//SAR level security clearance desired.
Preferred Qualifications
Grasp of real-time and deterministic software design, including multi-threading, synchronization, and memory management.
Experience with DevOps-integrated simulation workflows, including CI/CD and automated hardware testing environments.
Working knowledge of Python for data analysis, test automation, or simulation orchestration.
Familiarity with aircraft and flight physics modeling.
