Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Motion Planning (Autonomous Vehicles)

Location: Santa Clara, California, United States; hybrid workplace

Salary: $130,000–$220,000 per year

Company

hirify.global develops AI-based virtual driver software for factory-built autonomous trucks, operating across the United States and Europe.

What you will do

• Develop and deploy machine learning models for autonomous vehicle motion planning using map, perception, routing, and sensor data.
• Design architectures for trajectory generation, behavior planning, and decision-making while balancing accuracy, robustness, interpretability, and runtime efficiency.
• Own the machine learning lifecycle from data curation and feature engineering through experimentation, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and improvement.
• Build offline evaluation methodologies, validation pipelines, and metrics for planning quality, safety, robustness, and generalization.
• Investigate model failures and edge cases through systematic error analysis and targeted experimentation.
• Collaborate with runtime, perception, prediction, mapping, and systems teams to deploy production machine learning solutions and safety guardrails.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• 4+ years of experience developing machine learning systems for robotics, autonomous driving, or real-time decision-making systems.
• Strong Python skills and experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Knowledge of deep learning, sequence modeling, transformers, diffusion models, or other modern machine learning architectures.
• Experience designing datasets, experiments, validation methodologies, metrics, automated testing, and monitoring for production systems.
• Strong software engineering, debugging, analytical problem-solving, ownership, and cross-functional communication skills.

Nice to have

• Experience with planning, prediction, motion forecasting, or trajectory generation.
• Modern C++ and production software development experience.
• Experience with TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, CUDA, inference optimization, distributed training, or cloud-based machine learning infrastructure.
• Publications or open-source contributions in machine learning, robotics, or autonomous driving.
• Experience with safety-critical production machine learning systems or leading technical direction for large ML projects.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an innovative, future-oriented autonomous driving field.
• Opportunities for personal and professional development.
• Catered free lunch, unlimited snacks, and beverages.
• Competitive salary and benefits package including a 401(k) plan.