Systems Test Engineer at Shield AI

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.

The Hivemind Solutions Test Department is seeking a Senior Test Engineer (Software & Simulation Focus) to join our Bangalore-based team. Since Shield AI's mission is to protect service members and civilians, The Hivemind Solutions Test Department makes this a reality by validating the reliability, safety, and performance of our world-class autonomy software.

You’ll lead simulation-driven testing, automation, and software quality efforts for Hivemind, building and executing test frameworks that ensure our autonomy software performs reliably across simulated and real-world mission environments.

Shield AI is growing quickly, and we're looking for someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, embraces learning, and brings a high-ownership, mission-driven mindset. This is a chance to have a real impact—advancing autonomy that protects lives—while working with a collaborative, high-performing team.

What you'll do

• Develop automated regression, integration, and system-level tests to ensure Hivemind software quality and stability across releases.
• Identify, reproduce, and diagnose software issues—collaborating closely with development teams to drive fixes and improvements.
• Create and execute test plans and documentation for autonomy software in simulated environments, ensuring mission and safety requirements are met.
• Design, implement, and maintain simulation-based test frameworks to validate Hivemind autonomy behavior and performance.
• Build tools and utilities in Python to automate testing, data processing, and analysis workflows.
• Develop test harnesses and data validation tools for Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) / Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) / Vehicle-in-the-Loop (VIL) and simulation environments.
• Contribute to the definition of testing methodologies, metrics, and performance benchmarks for autonomy software validation.
• Support the scaling and reliability of simulation infrastructure used for large-scale software validation.
• Maintain detailed and accurate test documentation, ensuring traceability and knowledge sharing across teams.
• Work with developers to integrate test coverage directly into the development pipeline (CI/CD).

Required qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 3-5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 2-4 years and a Master’s degree; or 2 years with a PhD; or equivalent work experience.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Experience in robotics, small UAS, or related hands-on engineering projects.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and debugging skills.
• Passionate about intelligent aircraft systems.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with cross-functional software. hardware and mechanical engineering teams.
• Adaptability and a willingness to learn new technologies and methodologies quickly in a fast-paced environment.