Staff engineer, software (r6331)

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 Staff Software Engineer on the Enterprise Software Engineering team, you will design and build the applications, services, and integrations that keep Shield AI's business running – connecting the systems our engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and finance teams depend on every day. You will work primarily in C#/.NET with React on the frontend, building distributed, message-driven systems in the cloud and bringing AI capabilities into the tools our people use.

This is a hands-on, senior engineering role, where you will drive solutions from requirements, system design through deployment and support – sometimes leading a project, and at other times working closely with your teammates on a shared codebase. We move fast, so we are looking for someone who learns quickly, hits the ground running, and is comfortable making sound decisions with incomplete information.

What you'll do:

• Design, build, and maintain enterprise applications, APIs, and services using C#/.NET and React, with Python where it is the right tool for the job.
• Architect and implement distributed, event-driven systems using message brokers (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka, Azure Service Bus, MQTT) and service frameworks such as NServiceBus or MassTransit.
• Build reliable integrations between enterprise systems (e.g., PLM, ERP, identity, and engineering platforms), handling long-running workflows, retries, and failure recovery.
• Apply proven system design patterns – such as Saga/process managers, outbox, CQRS, and idempotent consumers – to deliver scalable, resilient, maintainable solutions.
• Design and integrate AI capabilities into applications, such as LLM-powered features, agents, and intelligent automation.
• Use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery while maintaining high standards for code quality, security, and review.
• Deploy and operate services in Azure and/or AWS for our team and other teams across the business, applying sound practices for security, networking, identity, reliability, and cost.
• Use existing CI/CD and developer platforms (GitLab, Azure DevOps, GitHub, Artifactory, SonarQube) to build, test, and ship software; contribute pipeline changes as your projects require.
• Instrument services for observability and troubleshoot asynchronous and distributed processes in production.
• Collaborate closely with fellow Staff engineers – contributing to design reviews, code reviews, and the team's engineering standards – and lead projects when the work calls for it.
• Partner with stakeholders across the business to understand problems, shape requirements, and deliver solutions with measurable impact.

Required qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field; or equivalent practical experience.
• Deep expertise in C# and .NET (.NET 6+ / ASP.NET Core, an open-source web development framework | .NET Core), including building RESTful APIs, background services, and Entity Framework or similar data access.
• Professional experience building frontends with React (TypeScript preferred).
• Hands-on experience with messaging and event-driven architecture using RabbitMQ, Kafka, MQTT, Azure Service Bus, or similar technologies, including an understanding of delivery guarantees, ordering, retries, and dead-letter handling.
• Strong knowledge/experience in architecting and using Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) tools.
• Strong understanding of system design and architectural patterns, including distributed systems, microservices vs. modular monoliths, eventual consistency, and resiliency patterns.
• Cloud experience is a must – preferably Azure or AWS. Solid grasp of core cloud concepts at an associate-certification level (e.g., AZ-204, AZ-104, AWS Solutions Architect – Associate, AWS Developer – Associate), including security, networking, identity and access management (IAM/RBAC), compute, storage, and managed services.
• Working knowledge of CI/CD and deployment practices – comfortable building, deploying, and troubleshooting applications through pipelines, though platform administration is not a primary responsibility.
• Experience with relational databases (e.g., SQL Server, PostgreSQL), including data modeling and query performance.
• Strong experience with AI coding tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar) and practical judgment about how to use them effectively and safely.
• Strong testing discipline, including unit, integration, and end-to-end testing.
• Thrives in a fast-paced environment – learns new domains and technologies quickly and delivers value early.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain technical trade-offs to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated commitment to ownership, continuous improvement, and being a reliable, respectful team member.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience implementing the Saga pattern (orchestration and/or choreography) for long-running business processes.
• Experience with NServiceBus and the Particular Service Platform (ServicePulse, ServiceInsight, ServiceControl), or comparable tools for monitoring and troubleshooting asynchronous, message-based systems.
• Proficiency in Python for services, scripting, data processing, or AI/ML workloads.
• Active Azure or AWS certification (associate level or higher).
• Experience with containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps, AKS/EKS) and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Bicep).
• Experience with observability tooling (OpenTelemetry, Application Insights, Grafana, Datadog, or similar).
• Experience integrating with enterprise identity platforms (Microsoft Entra ID, OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect, SSO, RBAC).
• Experience integrating enterprise business systems such as PLM (e.g., Teamcenter, Arena), ERP (e.g., Costpoint), or similar.
• Experience developing software in a DoD, defense, or government contractor environment, including Azure Government or AWS GovCloud.
• Familiarity with secure software development practices and frameworks such as NIST 800-218 (SSDF).
• Experience working as a peer on a small senior team, sharing a codebase and alternating between leading and contributing to projects.

$140,000 - $210,000 a year

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Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.