Sr. Staff Engineer, Motion Planning and Controls, Autonomous Driving

Senior Staff Software Engineer Motion Planning and Controls Autonomous Driving

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Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to support the auto-parking and low-speed autonomy stack. This role focuses on trajectory optimization path smoothing and local planning with direct impact on parking features such as Auto Park Summon and Park-to-Park. The ideal candidate will combine strong algorithmic foundations with production-grade software execution driving both system performance and scalability. This role is based in Newark CA. and requires employees to be onsite five days a week.

Key Responsibilities:

• Motion Planning & Trajectory Optimization
  • Develop and enhance trajectory optimization algorithms (e.g. iLQR / MPC-based approaches) for low-speed scenarios
  • Design and implement constraint-aware optimization including
  • Improve local planners to generate control-friendly trajectories
• System Architecture & Performance Optimization
  • Refactor and scale planning stack architecture for maintainability and extensibility
  • Optimize CPU usage and explore parallel/GPU acceleration opportunities
  • Improve system-level behaviors such as:
    • Stability under dynamic constraints
    • Scalability across scenarios and vehicle platforms
• Debugging Validation and Production Integration
  • Investigate and resolve real-world issues such as: Curvature discontinuities velocity/trajectory mismatches and edge-case steering behavior
  • Validate solutions using:
    • Simulation and vehicle logs
    • Multi-scenario testing and benchmarking
• Research Prototyping and Innovation
  • Evaluate and prototype new approaches (e.g. learned models barrier functions ML-based planning)
  • Benchmark and compare planning algorithms for production viability
  • Contribute to next-gen planning initiatives including ML-driven planning
• Cross-Team Collaboration & Knowledge Transfer
  • Drive technical discussions and share algorithm insights across teams
  • Maintain high-quality documentation and support knowledge transfer
  • Track work via Jira with clear metrics and reproducible results

Required Qualifications:

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Robotics Control Electrical Engineering or related field
• 10 years of software development experience in autonomous driving ADAS or robotics with a focus on large-scale data and real-time systems
• Strong programming skills in C/C with solid understanding of software engineering design principles and best practices
• Proven track record of delivering ADAS/AD features through the full production lifecycle: requirements analysis architecture/design implementation unit testing feature tuning SIL/HIL validation and in-vehicle deployment
• Hands-on experience with software integration on embedded platforms (e.g. NVIDIA Xavier/Orin Infineon Aurix)
• Demonstrated ability to build reliable production-grade systems including large-scale architectures evaluation pipelines and performance-optimized models
• Leadership experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• ML-based planning approaches
• GPU or parallel computing for planning
• Track record of production deployment in real vehicles