Senior Engineer - Motion Planning and Controls, Autonomous Driving
$158,400–$217,800 year
On-siteNewark, California, United States
Job Summary
Develop and enhance trajectory optimization algorithms, including iLQR and MPC-based approaches, for low-speed autonomy scenarios. Refactor and scale the planning stack architecture while optimizing CPU usage through parallel and GPU acceleration. Improve local planners to generate control-friendly trajectories and resolve real-world issues like curvature discontinuities and velocity mismatches. Validate solutions via simulation, vehicle logs, and multi-scenario testing. Evaluate and prototype new approaches such as learned models and ML-based planning for production viability. Drive technical discussions, maintain documentation, and track work via Jira with clear metrics.
Required Qualifications
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, Electrical Engineering, or related field
- 2+ years of software development experience in autonomous driving, ADAS, or robotics, with a focus on large-scale data and real-time systems
- Strong programming skills in C/C++ with solid understanding of software engineering design principles and best practices
- Proven track record of delivering ADAS/AD features through the full production lifecycle: requirements analysis, architecture/design, implementation, unit testing, feature tuning, SIL/HIL validation, and in-vehicle deployment
- Hands-on experience with software integration on embedded platforms (e.g., NVIDIA Xavier/Orin, Infineon Aurix)
- Demonstrated ability to build reliable production-grade systems, including large-scale architectures, evaluation pipelines, and performance-optimized models
- This role is based in Newark, CA and requires employees to be onsite five days a week
Desired Qualifications
- ML-based planning approaches
- GPU or parallel computing for planning
- Track record of production deployment in real vehicles
Hiring someone like this?
Get your role in front of qualified candidates on Sorce.