Staff Engineer – Human Machine Interface

About the role

Shield AI is seeking an experienced Staff Engineer to lead the development of operator‑facing software for autonomous uncrewed systems. This hands‑on technical leadership position spans HMI, mission systems, and autonomous‑platform integration, delivering ground‑control, mission‑planning, command‑and‑control, and debrief tools.

Key responsibilities

• Define technical direction and architecture for HMI across Hivemind Solutions products.
• Design and deliver applications for mission planning, command and control, vehicle and payload supervision, system health, and post‑mission debrief.
• Build map‑centric, data‑rich interfaces that convey vehicle state, autonomy intent, mission status, alerts, and degraded conditions.
• Develop front‑end solutions using React, TypeScript, HTML/CSS and native desktop frameworks such as Qt/QML.
• Design robust data flows between front‑ends, C++ services, backend systems, autonomy software, vehicle interfaces, simulation, telemetry, and video sources.
• Define and negotiate APIs, data models, schemas, interface contracts, and ICDs with internal teams and external partners.
• Lead design reviews, code reviews, architecture decisions, and engineering practices for quality, performance, and release readiness.
• Support simulation, operator‑in‑the‑loop testing, system integration, flight test, field activity, and customer demonstrations.
• Debug complex HMI and mission‑system issues spanning performance, memory, data freshness, networking, messaging, video, and vehicle integration.
• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across frontend, HMI, and mission‑system software.

Required profile

• Tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or related discipline.
• Significant experience delivering complex user‑facing software, preferably in a senior technical role.
• Strong C++ fundamentals and experience contributing to production native software or performance‑sensitive systems.
• Experience with APIs, distributed systems, asynchronous data flows, messaging, and client/server architectures.
• Proven ability to own software capabilities from architecture through integration, testing, deployment, and operational support.
• Excellent debugging, profiling, technical communication, and cross‑functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain an Australian Government security clearance.

Required skills

• React
• TypeScript
• HTML & CSS
• Qt / QML
• C++
• API design and integration
• Distributed systems
• Asynchronous data flows & messaging
• Client‑server architecture
• Real‑time data handling
• Debugging and performance profiling