Shield AI
 is hiring a fractional

Principal Autonomy Architect

Added 

x

 - Syndicated from 
Lever

How Syndicated Job Posts Work

This job was not posted directly to Fractional Jobs. It’s syndicated from another platform
To apply, view the application and follow their guidelines
Please let them know that Fractional Jobs sent you!

This Role is Closed

This company has already made a successful hire.
Fractional jobs get filled quickly. To get alerted when new fractional jobs go live, subscribe to our alerts.

This is a Featured Job

100% guarantee that your intro request will be seen
You’ll receive an update within 14 days
If the company is interested, we’ll intro the two of you directly

Weekly Commitment

20 - 40 hrs

Compensation Range

$26K - $40K / mo

Company Stage

Growth-stage VC

Industry

Defense-tech

Location

Onsite (San Diego, DC, or Boston only)
moonlight ok
moonlight ok
convert full-time
convert full-time
equity offered
equity offered
hands-on needed
hands-on needed

Note: We've kept the name of the company private. If you'd like to know the company before requesting an intro, just email us at hello [at] fractionaljobs.io

About Us

As an Autonomy Architect within the Hivemind Pilot team, you will lead the development of the Pilot stack, Shield AI’s edge autonomy offering. This is a pivotal technical role that blends architectural ownership with hands-on involvement in methodology development and direction setting. Your work will directly shape how autonomy software is developed, deployed, and operated across a range of systems—from aircraft to maritime and ground vehicles. You will partner closely with the Pilot Director and cross-functional leadership to define and execute the vision for Pilot: an extensible, developer-focused, autonomy SDK that enables solving the various problem areas typical to edge autonomy ranging from state-estimation to task-planning. You’ll be accountable for technical correctness, run-time sophistication, and system reliability required for mission-critical applications.

What You'll Do:

  • Define and develop robust methodologies for some of the core challenges pertaining to large-scale teaming in contested environments including but not limited to collaborative decision making, path-planning, object tracking, state estimation and intelligent multi-agent autonomy solutions.
  • Collaborate with a strong team of autonomy engineers to take concepts all the way through production ensuring robust, resilient implementations that operate with a high level of reliability
  • Collaborate with Pilot Director to shape the roadmap for Pilot to accelerate value delivery to customers and sophistication of the stack.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional leaders to inform their roadmaps and influence capability development with an eye toward long-term vision
  • Collaborate with other architects to ensure seamless integration of the Pilot stack with other elements of Hivemind SDK for a consistent customer experience.

Required Qualifications:

  • 10+ years of experience in the AI & autonomy domain
  • Deep expertise and experience in various areas of autonomy including discrete planning for task assignment / scheduling, path-planning (sampling-based, graph-based), next-best-view planning, distributed state-estimation, collaborative object tracking, and active perception
  • Experience deploying complex autonomy software to relevant real-world platforms with demonstrable results
  • Experience working with a large team of engineers as a technical mentor / guide with the ability to enhance rigor and correctness in methodologies across the stack
  • Experience in forming the long-term vision and strategy for the technology stack in support of product needs bridging the gap between feasibility and rapid evolution
  • Strong experience with software development using C++.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience in the defense and aerospace domain
  • Experience with assured processes toward software certification (DO-178C).
  • Experience deploying cutting edge technology to large (Group 4/5) aircraft
  • Familiarity with CI/CD and software design principles

$13,000 - $20,000 biweekly

Temporary Employee Offer Package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

​​

How to Apply

Note: This is a syndicated job post. Fractional Jobs found it on the web, but we are not working with the client directly, so we don't have control over or knowledge of the application process. To apply, click on the "View Application" button and follow the application's instructions. Let us know how it goes!


How to Get in Touch

Hit that "Request Intro" button below. Include any relevant links so we can get to know you better.

Your brief intro note should clearly address:


If we think there's a fit, we'll reach out to schedule an intro call. Looking forward!

x
More
Engineering
Jobs

Handl Health

 - 

Chief Information Security Officer

 

20 hrs
 | 
$250 - $300 / hr
 | 
Remote (USA only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 27, 2026
chief-information-security-officer-at-handl-health
added 

Digital Dynamics

 - 

Chief Information Officer

 

8 - 24 hrs
 | 
$175 - $250 / hr
 | 
Hybrid (SF/Bay Area only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 20, 2026
chief-information-officer-at-digital-dynamics
added 

Dark Horse Technologies

 - 

Cloud Engineer II

 

10 - 20 hrs
 | 
Unknown
 | 
Onsite (DC only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 20, 2026
cloud-engineer-ii-at-dark-horse-technologies
added 

Welocalize

 - 

Lead Prompt Engineer

 

10 - 20 hrs
 | 
Unknown
 | 
Remote (USA only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 20, 2026
lead-prompt-engineer-at-welocalize
added 

A Workforce Analytics Startup

 - 

Chief Technology Officer

 

(
)
10 - 15 hrs
 | 
$200 - $250 / hr
 | 
Remote (USA only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 19, 2026
chief-technology-officer-at-a-workforce-analytics-startup
added 

Monster Lead Group

 - 

Principal Contact Center Architect

 

15 - 20 hrs
 | 
$200 - $250 / hr
 | 
Remote (USA only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 12, 2026
principal-contact-center-architect-at-monster-lead-group
added 

A Pediatric Telemedicine Startup

 - 

ML Engineer

 

(
)
10 - 15 hrs
 | 
$150 - 175 / hr
 | 
Remote (USA only)
Engineering
Syndicated
March 12, 2026
ml-engineer-at-a-pediatric-telemedicine-startup
added 
Contentful - Head of Marketing
(contentful.com)
10hrs / up to $10k monthly / New York (remote)
Contentful - Head of Marketing
(contentful.com)
10hrs / up to $10k monthly / New York (remote)
Contentful - Head of Marketing
(contentful.com)
10hrs / up to $10k monthly / New York (remote)
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Send fractional jobs, 

playbooks, and more to

You’re in! Check your inbox to confirm.
We also post job alerts on
&
Hhmm, try again. That didn’t work.