Discrete Planning Engineer (R5440)
Shield AI
San Diego, CA · $135k–$350k a year · Posted July 24, 2026
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Where San Diego, CA ranks
Where San Diego, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Cities hosting the most business conferences in the West Coast78 conferences · of 17
- #2Cities hosting the most human resources conferences6 conferences · of 10
- #3Best cities for life sciences and biotech jobs454 openings · of 41
- #3Best cities for aerospace and defense jobs377 openings · of 67
- #3Cities hosting the most legal services conferences7 conferences · of 17
- #3Cities hosting the most staffing & human capital conferences6 conferences · of 8
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
How AI is used in this kind of work
AI use among mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers is little observed so far. Measured exposure for mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers: 0% (little observed).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
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.
Job Description: The Discrete Planning Group is a part of the Autonomy Team for Hivemind Enterprise Product. The group is an agile set of engineers focused on researching and developing state-of-the-art algorithms that drive intelligent and confidence-inspiring flight behaviors while accounting for an uncertain and dynamic world. As a member of the group, you will work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, discrete optimization, and motion planning. You will architect and write high-quality software for core systems, set standards for software engineering, refine technical requirements, drive strategic technical improvements, and mentor other engineers.
What you'll do:
Research, design, and implement state-of-the-art algorithms for optimal task allocation, scheduling and temporal sequencing of heterogeneous teams of autonomous vehicles (land, air, other).
Solidify and improve existing C++ based mission planning software applicable across disparate vehicle types and compute platforms.
Work with our engineers, program managers, and product managers to define a technical roadmap for future autonomy solutions and SDK offerings.
Projects you might work on:
Breakdown a mission into assignable tasks based on agent capabilities such as navigating in contested and denied environments and adapting to mission changes in real-time.
Construct feasible and optimal action plans for distributed teams of autonomous vehicles that also minimize human operator workload.
Full software and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of complex multi-agent missions.
Required qualifications:
Typically requires a PhD with graduate work in Optimization or Operations Research. Master’s degree with 4 or more years of work in the same areas.
Expert in Integer or Mixed Integer Linear Programming, Constraint Programming, Convex Optimization, Multi-Objective-Optimization and using established solvers such as Gurobi, Google-OR, CPLEX etc.
Significant experience in implementing algorithms in C++ and using debuggers such as gdb to troubleshoot execution within a multi-threaded environment.
Ways to stand out:
Past publications on Optimization(google scholar profile).
Engineer II- $135,000-$200,000
Senior Engineer: $165,000-$250,000
Staff Engineer: $200,000-$300,000
Senior Staff Engineer: $230,000-$350,000
#LI-KC3 #LE
Full-time regular employee offer package: Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package: Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.