Senior Autonomy Software Engineer, Mapping

Description

The company is publicly listed on Nasdaq, was founded in 2018, and works on Physical AI, meaning driverless technology for machines that move. Its vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving system pairs AI software with modular hardware and is used in long-haul trucking, industrial trucking, and defense.

In 2024 the company launched commercial Driver-as-a-Service operations with no one in the cab, and it plans driverless long-haul service between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026.

Partners and customers include Bosch, which handles scaled hardware production, and AWS. Customers include Atlas Energy Solutions, IKEA, Bridgestone, Werner Enterprises, C.R. England, Roehl Transport, and General Dynamics Land Systems.

This Staff Engineer role sits on the Calibration, Localization and Mapping team. You would be a technical leader in state estimation, inertial navigation, and sensed odometry, setting technical direction for the team and across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical strategy and architecture for the onboard navigation and pose estimation systems.
• Lead the design of sensor fusion and pose estimation across IMU, camera, and lidar, anticipating failure modes before they show up in the field.
• Direct the work on visual and lidar odometry, including weighing whether to build or adopt new techniques.
• Define the navigation metrics and evaluation methods the organization uses to assess algorithm and system performance, and promote their use.
• Act as the escalation point for complex, ambiguous, or cross-cutting localization problems.
• Evaluate sensor performance and choose which sensors to use.
• Verify sensor calibrations, settings, and uncertainty characterizations.

Requirements

• A BS, MS, or PhD, plus academic or industry experience building navigation, localization, and odometry systems.
• Expert-level C++ and strong problem-solving skills.
• Strong software engineering skills and a record of building高-reliability deployed applications, with well-designed, highly maintainable code.
• Deep experience turning raw GNSS, IMU, wheel speed, and similar sensor data into 6-DOF pose using Kalman filtering, factor graphs, or comparable state estimation methods, and knowing when each fits.
• Experience with computer vision, visual odometry, and/or odometry from point clouds.
• A history of mentoring engineers and raising a team's technical practices.
• A team player who takes ownership, works with others to deliver strong results, and cares about performance across the whole system and every engineering discipline.
• Ability to build and iterate quickly, and to define and build lasting infrastructure from scratch.
• Hands-on, curious, and flexible, with interest in new domains and in complete system-wide solutions.
• Clear written communication, including concise design documents that draw feedback from across the team.

Conditions

Pay range for the California base salary is $200,000 - $260,000 USD, for the SF/Silicon Valley location, across several internal levels.

Starting pay depends on work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level, and interview performance.

Total compensation includes base pay, equity, bonus, and benefits.

The office is centrally located in Mountain View, CA.

Some roles with more sensitive requirements may be limited to candidates who pass additional scrutiny, and eligibility may depend on verifying residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship.

If a role requires an export license, or a candidate's status falls under national security restrictions, the company will consider that candidate for other roles unaffected by those restrictions, on terms it sets at its sole discretion, or may decide not to proceed with the application.

Visa sponsorship may be offered to eligible candidates where applicable.

Applications are first screened by a third-party AI tool, and final hiring decisions are made by human recruiters.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits harassment of any kind.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation with equity and annual bonuses.
• Medical, dental, and vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife, including a medical plan with infertility benefits.
• MetLife legal services, identity and fraud protection, hospital indemnity, accident, and critical illness insurance.
• Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave.
• Long-term disability, short-term disability, and life insurance.
• Wellbeing benefits: Headspace and Spring Health through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, and Rula for mental health navigation.
• Fidelity 401(k).
• Commuter benefits, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and HSA.
• Incentive programs, including referral bonuses and patent bonuses.
• Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging.