Staff C++ Build and Release Engineer (R5673)

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.

What you'll do

Own C++ build and release workflows for autonomy and vision products, from source → build → test → package → release.

Support and evolve containerised CI/CD pipelines across multiple isolated environments (speed, determinism, promotion, repeatability).

Build and maintain container images for edge deployment

Manage JFrog/Artifactory repositories for multi-language and generic artefacts; improve versioning, retention, and promotion practices.

Strengthen dependency and build reproducibility for C++, reducing “works on my machine” and pipeline flakiness.

Validate and deploy autonomy and vision-system products, tools, and libraries—focusing on edge delivery and reliability.

Collaborate with engineers and system admins to ensure integration and stability across real deployment environments.

Tackle complex, meaningful problems that directly support mission outcomes.

Required qualifications

Strong, hands-on experience delivering modern C++ software in production (not just “supporting” it).

Demonstrated ownership of build systems / toolchains / dependency management (e.g., Conan, CMake, Nix, Ninja, Artifactory —whatever you’ve used to ship real systems).

Significant recent experience running CI/CD for compiled software and maintaining the surrounding engineering systems (pipelines, runners/agents, artefact stores, promotion gates).

Significant recent experience in Docker / Podman and containerised workflows

Strong understanding of Linux/Unix systems.

Experience debugging and troubleshooting.

Background in air-gapped or isolated DevOps environments (or similarly constrained delivery contexts).

Experience supporting Python deployment/distribution (for tooling around the C++ core).

Why Shield AI

Help shape the future of defence and autonomy in Australia and beyond.

Be a key voice in a mission-led business redefining what’s possible with emerging technology.

Join a growing, values-led team headquartered in Port Melbourne, with strong global partnerships and local autonomy.

Competitive salary, performance-based incentives, and long-term growth opportunities.

What this role is not

Not a “cloud-first” DevOps role focused on standing up cloud infrastructure.

This role is primarily about C++ build & release engineering and edge delivery - making autonomy software shippable, repeatable, and dependable in real environments.