Principal Engineer, Full Stack Developer
Company: Shield AI
Location: San Diego
Posted on: January 21, 2026
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Job Description:
The Special Projects team at Shield AI is an elite force within
the office of the CTO. It consists of a group of very senior
(L5-L8) and highly experienced software engineering experts from
diverse fields (aerospace, robotics, cloud infrastructure, game
development, interactive media design, ). The charter of this group
is to steer technology development towards strategic alignment with
the CTO’s vision, through tactical insertion into teams and
technologies across the organization. Individuals within this team
make direct and at times forward-sprinting contributions to all
three pillars of Hivemind, Shield AI’s software ecosystem for
developing and deploying resilient intelligent teaming for
aircrafts. Hivemind consists of four products: EdgeOS (C++ based
high-performance middleware for autonomy development), Pilot
(autonomy for the edge built atop EdgeOS; a models-based, modular
and open architecture C++ codebase), Forge (Shield AIs AI Factory
for the design, development, and testing of Hivemind Edge systems;
a service-oriented architecture leveraged through an SDK, CLI, and
web portal; a Go, Python, Typescript codebase), Commander (Software
and hardware to support rich human-in-the-loop and
human-on-the-loop interactions with the Hivemind; a C++-based
back-end for interaction with Pilot; and a web-application UI for
mission planning, command and control by operators implemented in a
Typescript/React codebase). The Special Projects team is chartered
to operate effectively within ambiguity. While this team does not
own any software products, it tactically and strategically impacts
the development of all foundational Hivemind products and leverages
those technologies to rapidly deliver low-TRL solutions. This work
happens should-to-shoulder with the product teams in some cases,
and in a forward-sprinting manner within the Special Projects team
in other cases. The result is direct contribution to products in
the formercase, and development of reference implementations in the
latter. The Special Projects team also functions as a pipeline for
product and solution engineering teams across the organization.
Individuals who enter the Special Projects team rapidly gain depth
and breadth in their understanding of the Hivemind software
ecosystem. This positions them well for leading technology
development effort across the product and solution organization.
What Youll Do: • Design and prototype generative AI experience
focused on accelerating autonomy development • Work closely with
members of the Office of the CTO to crystallize the vision of the
Hivemind product and its documentation • Lead the user experience
design of Hivemind Generative AI • Work closely with the technical
leads of Hivemind Commander (mission planning, command and control,
air-ground communications) and Hivemind Design (configurations,
test and evaluation, rehearsal, analysis) to enhance the user
experience of their products • Conduct user research to understand
user personae and their needs • Investigate competing products and
their user experiences, synthesize findings to present to
engineering and product leadership Required Qualifications: • 15
years experience developing large, production quality software
systems. • Excellent grasp of software development and coding
principles with high productivity in a mainstream language (e.g.
Typescript, C++, Go, Python, etc.). • Strong knowledge of modern
software engineering best practices; Experience with Git and code
management tools; Good software hygiene regarding code
documentation, unit testing, bug tracking. • 5 years of experience
with React/Node/Typescript/Javascript development. • Deep
familiariry with Client and UI state management; best practises and
strategies, as they apply to React-based rendering. • 5 years of
experience with Web applications development ("Front-End" or
"Full-stack"). • Good understanding of the Document-Object Model
(DOM), browser APIs, standards, and semantics. • Websockets, HTTP
Streaming and Server-Sent Events (SSE). • Multi-modal input
handling (text, files, images, audio). • Advanced SPA routing,
URL-based state persistence, and sharing mechanisms. • Seamless
content loading states and progressive rendering techniques. •
Fluid intelligence that allows one to operate effectively in
sometimes ambiguous conditions, while finding opportunities to
drive technical efforts and force multiply. • Experience with
Linux, Docker, and CI/CD environments. • Hands-on experience with a
major cloud platform (Azure, GCP, AWS). • Experience with Electron
(or similar). • This role requires travel to a Shield AI location
1-3 times per quarter Preferred Qualifications: • Experience with
geospatial data and WebGL. • Experience with Playwright UI testing
• Building debugging/inspection UIs for generative AI systems •
Experience with client-side LLM Context Management • Experience
with user experience design video games • Experience designing for
“Low Code” or “No Code” systems • Experience and/or comfort reading
C++ and/or Python and/or Typescript
Keywords: Shield AI, Escondido , Principal Engineer, Full Stack Developer, IT / Software / Systems , San Diego, California
