Senior Research Engineer, Controls (Autonomous Vehicles)

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

Salary: $150,000–$200,000 per year

Company

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

What you will do

• Design and enhance control algorithms integrating model predictive control with deep learning, reinforcement learning, and imitation learning.
• Develop machine-learning vehicle models and data-driven control policies for autonomous trucking.
• Build dataset generation, training, and evaluation tools and infrastructure for online control optimization.
• Keep model development real-time and efficient in compute-constrained environments.
• Plan and execute vehicle testing in offline simulation and on public roads, including performance tuning, troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and debugging.
• Collaborate with engineers, research scientists, and domain experts while incorporating the latest research advancements.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 2 years of machine learning engineering or industry experience designing and developing robotics applications.
• Strong foundation in motion control and modern neural network architectures, with expertise in areas such as imitation learning, reinforcement learning, time-series analysis, or dynamic system modeling.
• Strong programming skills in Python and C++, plus experience debugging robotic systems in Linux environments.
• Experience developing and training models with modern frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Hands-on familiarity with data ingestion and processing pipelines.

Nice to have

• Experience with adaptive and nonlinear control, MPC and optimal control, robust control, data-driven control, or Kalman filters.
• Understanding of autonomous vehicle control, vehicle dynamics, and drive-by-wire systems.
• Experience applying, verifying, and validating ADAS or autonomous driving features and functions.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in a future-oriented and innovative 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.