Path Planning Engineer (Robotics)

Location: Clarksburg, Maryland, United States; travel up to 20% for on-site vehicle integration and testing.

Salary: $150,000–$180,000 per year, plus potential equity.

Company

hirify.global develops autonomous weapons, sensors, and battlefield systems for defense and commercial partners, with a focus on distributed control, dynamic routing, and real-time responsiveness.

What you will do

• Develop real-time deterministic, randomized, and optimization-based path and motion planning algorithms in C++ for Ackermann, skid-steered, wheeled, and tracked vehicles.
• Integrate planning algorithms with perception, localization, controls, and platform interfaces.
• Deploy, test, and debug autonomy software directly on vehicles under real-time, latency, and hardware constraints.
• Design messaging for synchronization, logging, and debugging across distributed systems.
• Own validation from simulation through hardware-in-the-loop and on-vehicle testing.
• Work with Perception, Controls, Platform, and Systems Engineering teams to resolve field issues and deliver reliable vehicle behavior.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Applied Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Strong background in path planning, motion planning, or related autonomy domains.
• Strong C++ programming skills in a Linux environment.
• Solid software engineering fundamentals, including system design, unit and integration testing, debugging, and documentation.
• Experience deploying or integrating software on physical robotic or automotive platforms.
• Ability to deliver production-quality software in a continuously integrated environment with a proactive, hands-on approach.

Nice to have

• Experience with unmanned ground vehicles in outdoor environments.
• On-vehicle debugging, telemetry analysis, and real-time system profiling experience.
• Familiarity with ROS, ROS2, or similar robotics middleware.
• Experience across perception–planning–controls interfaces.
• Experience with CUDA, PyTorch, TensorFlow, or TensorRT.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with equity included in most high-demand roles.
• Healthcare options with hirify.global covering 80% of employee and dependent premiums, including an HSA-eligible plan.
• 20 days of accrued PTO, a generous holiday calendar, and a paid winter break.
• At least seven weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• $9,000 annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• 401(k) plan with company matching up to 4%, plus disability and life insurance coverage.

Hiring process

• Recruiter discussions include further details about compensation and benefits.