Staff Engineer – Modelling & Simulation

About the role

Shield AI is seeking a Staff Engineer to lead the design, development, and operationalisation of high‑performance simulation capabilities that support Hivemind Mission Autonomy programmes in Australia. You will own the architecture of real‑time and faster‑than‑real‑time simulation environments used by autonomy, perception and systems engineering teams.

Key responsibilities

• Architect, design and evolve distributed, real‑time simulation systems across virtual, constructive and live environments.
• Develop high‑performance C++ software for modelling, integration workflows and system interoperability, including legacy standards.
• Integrate defence simulation frameworks such as AFSIM or NGTS to meet customer expectations.
• Deliver containerised simulation deployments using Docker and Kubernetes for development, CI, testing and operational use.
• Provide technical and project leadership to multi‑disciplinary engineering teams of five or more contributors.
• Collaborate with autonomy, perception, hardware and test teams to connect simulation with algorithms and automated test pipelines.

Required profile

• Tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mechatronics or a related field.
• Extensive professional experience in software engineering, systems integration and modern C++ development.
• Proven experience leading teams delivering complex engineering or software projects.
• Hands‑on experience with real‑time, distributed simulation systems or HWIL/SWIL environments.
• Ability to obtain an Australian NV1 security clearance.

Required skills

• C++ (modern and legacy standards)
• Python
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Linux development environments
• AFSIM or NGTS defence simulation frameworks
• Real‑time and distributed simulation systems