Principal Engineer / Director, Motion Planning

Location: Santa Clara, California, United States; Workplace: Hybrid

Salary: $200,000–$280,000 per year; exact compensation varies by skills and experience.

Company

Develops software for self-driving vehicles, including safety-critical motion forecasting and planning systems.

What you will do

• Lead, manage, and expand a team focused on motion forecasting and planning for autonomous driving.
• Own the planning, execution, and success of autonomous driving projects.
• Write production code and develop prototypes to test novel algorithms and ideas.
• Scale end-to-end machine learning pipelines from data ingestion and preprocessing through training, validation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Present progress to senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Ensure technical work and team practices meet customer requirements, regulatory standards, quality policies, and QMS requirements.

Requirements

• 7–10 years of experience building data-driven, fault-tolerant systems.
• Proven experience delivering a deep-learning-based system.
• MS or PhD in Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• Extensive experience designing and building modern planning systems.
• Strong C++ and Python development skills, with a focus on robust, efficient, safety-critical software.

Nice to have

• Experience in deep learning, mobile robotics, geometric modeling, and trajectory generation.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work arrangement in Santa Clara, California.
• Culture of experimentation, innovation, technical excellence, and accountability.
• Opportunity to contribute to continuous quality and process improvement.
• AI tools may support parts of the hiring process, while final decisions remain with human reviewers.