Staff Deep Learning Engineer

Shield AI is a venture-backed defence technology company building intelligent autonomous systems for aircraft. Our mission is to protect service members and civilians through AI and autonomy.

Founded in 2015, Shield AI’s flagship autonomy software, Hivemind, powers aircraft, drones, and other platforms to perform complex missions with high reliability in contested environments.

For more information, visit www.shield.ai and follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

The Team:

Join Vision Systems, a key division of Shield AI at the forefront of perception technology innovation. We push the boundaries of AI-powered real-time perception solutions, solving practical challenges at the edge. Our deep learning expertise drives cutting-edge breakthroughs, enabling AI to interpret and interact with the world like never before.

If you're passionate about shaping the future of AI-driven perception capabilities for autonomous and non-autonomous platforms, we want you on our team!

What You'll Do:

• Research, design, and implement state-of-the-art perception capabilities, taking ideas from concept to field deployment.
• Deploy and optimise our AI stack for edge devices.
• Collaborate with deep learning engineers to develop scalable tools and frameworks for large-scale AI operations.
• Stay up to date with cutting-edge AI and deep learning research, contributing to ongoing R&D initiatives.

What You'll Bring:

• Recent experience developing deep learning-based solutions for computer vision applications.
• Strong understanding of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and transformers for object classification, recognition, and segmentation.
• Experience implementing novel deep learning architectures using frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Caffe.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers/researchers in AI and deep learning.

Bonus Points For:

• Published research in leading AI/Computer Vision conferences (e.g., CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, PAMI, JMLR).
• Proficiency in C++ and/or Python for AI model development.
• Experience with object detection, target tracking, SLAM, 3D reconstruction, behaviour analysis, and automated surveillance systems.
• Background in edge AI deployment, including model pruning, quantisation, and performance tuning.
• Hands-on experience with MLOps, managing AI pipelines, and scaling deep learning services.
• Previous Defence experience is highly desirable.

Why Shield AI?

• Work on mission-critical AI and perception technology solving real-world defence and security challenges
• Join a high-performing, collaborative engineering team at the cutting edge of AI and autonomy.
• Flexible and supportive work environment - our office is in Port Melbourne, close to Melbourne CBD.
• Salary + equity for permanent roles, with flexible working options available.

Help us redefine what’s possible in AI-driven perception - apply today!

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, colour, 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.