Shield AI logo

Autonomy Engineer, Technical Documentation

Shield AI

San Diego, CAFull-time$136–204K/yrPosted 1 day agoStill listed 1 day ago

Most applications go out cold — see where you stand first. No sign-up to start.

You apply on the employer's site, with no Olive account needed.

Watch jobs like this.

Don't just apply. Show up ready.

Olive works from this exact posting.

At a glance

Compensation
$136–204K/yr
Location
San Diego, CA
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

Shield AI seeks an Autonomy Engineer with technical writing skills to become an expert user of its Hivemind Enterprise product. The role works with developers and the Customer Engagement team to create product documentation, tutorials, diagrams, and workflow visuals. The ideal candidate has a background in software engineering and robotics and can communicate technical concepts clearly to customers with varying levels of experience.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Robotics and AutonomyC++Technical WritingSoftware DocumentationLinuxCommunicationSoftware VersioningSoftware PackagingSoftware DeploymentAviation or Aerospace

Full job description

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 Division of Shield AI seeks a highly skilled and detail-oriented Autonomy Engineer with Technical Writing Skills to join our team. The ideal candidate will have a background in software engineering and robotics and be able to become a superuser of our Hivemind Enterprise product: a software product that enables scalable design, deployment, evaluation, and iteration of autonomy architectures for a wide range of robotic platforms. This role requires you to be able to work cross-functionally with developers across engineering teams and learn to use the Hivemind SDK product, then draft your knowledge into well-written technical documentation and clearly communicated tutorials capable of being followed by customers with wide differences in skills and level of experience.

What you'll do:

  • Become an expert user of the Hivemind Enterprise product.

  • Contribute to the selection of documentation creation platforms and tools.

  • Work with developers and our Customer Engagement team to generate technical writing to describe product functionalities.

  • Generate diagrams, flow charts, and other visual aids to describe supported workflows.

  • Devise a strategy for connecting auto-generated API documentation with hand-written user guides.

Required qualifications:

  • Background in robotics and autonomy.

  • Coding proficiency with C++.

  • Highly proficient at technical writing (academic papers, technical tutorials, software product documentation, etc.).

  • Strong understanding of what excellence in software product documentation looks like.

  • Comfortable working in a Linux environment.

  • Fast thinker, fast doer, able to generate results rapidly with minimal input in order to unblock iteration.

  • Excellent communicator.

Preferred qualifications:

  • Familiar with software engineering practices with regards to software versioning, packaging, deployment.

  • Experience within the aviation and/or aerospace industry.

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.

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.

How this job compares

Set against the 737 open Technical Writer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 8, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$136–204K/yr
  • California median$112–154K/yr77 salary ranges
  • US median$80–132K/yr448 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $170K, is 28% above the California median midpoint ($133K) — in the top quarter of Technical Writer salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 105 open Technical Writer jobs in California and 737 across the US. 5% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
Technical Writer postings that state a minimum ask for 4 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 3 to 6 years (464 postings).
Education
185 of the 737 open Technical Writer jobs (25%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 8, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

Prepare for this role

You've read the whole posting — now see how you match it.