Director, Autonomy Perception Anywhere, USA

May Mobility; Ann Arbor (MI); On-site; USD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plan

Parental leave

Flexible vacation

Wellness program

HSA/FSAs

Job summary

May Mobility in Ann Arbor, MI seeks a Director of Perception to lead the vision, strategy, and technical roadmap for the Autonomy Perception team. This role advances MPDM-based perception through high‑quality sensor data and processing algorithms, bridging autonomous driving with city-scale mobility.

You will guide engineering managers and engineers, collaborating across Vehicle Engineering, Product, and Operations while shaping the future of perception technology and its deployment in

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering experience.
• PhD or masters in a technical field.
• Proven ability to solve complex autonomy problems.
• 7+ years software engineering in robotics.
• Experience leading a 10+ person team.
• Previous AV or autonomous space experience.
• 5+ years of management experience.
• Experience developing MPDM.
• Startup experience.
• Deep understanding of autonomy challenges.

Responsibilities

• Be a technical thought leader to champion May Mobility’s mission, vision, values and company priorities to develop and execute autonomy strategy with fellow executives and engineering leaders.
• Work cross‑functionally with Vehicle Engineering, Product, and Operations leaders to solve and deploy solutions to autonomy perception challenges.
• Deliver innovative and robust advances to May’s perception technology including measurable improvements to object detection, classification, tracking, and prediction.
• Ensure May’s core perception technologies operate efficiently and effectively in commercial deployments, including supporting effective triage and resolution of issues related to this technology.
• Maintain an understanding of related research fields including machine learning, end‑to‑end learned systems, tracking systems, multi‑sensor fusion, and behavior prediction.
• Lead design and specification of next‑generation sensor suites to maximize May’s perception system performance and optimize cost. Work with systems and hardware teams to support prototyping and evaluating future systems.
• Develop and maintain KPIs to track autonomy performance.
• Identify key gaps and challenges in May’s autonomy perception technology.
• Construct and execute a roadmap to solve key challenges and synchronize with other roadmaps.
• Identify milestones to iteratively improve performance.
• Take responsibility for planning, execution, and success of complex technical projects and provide leadership.
• Help set perception team hiring targets, interview, hire, and manage a diverse team of perception engineers and scientists.
• Oversee escalation of critical issues and opportunities within the autonomy team’s leadership.

Skills

Multi-sensor fusion

Object detection

Scene segmentation

Tracking

Behavior prediction

Leadership

Hiring management

Communication

Problem solving

Autonomy

Education

PhD or Masters

Job description

May Mobility is transforming cities through autonomous technology to create a safer, greener, more accessible world. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May develops and deploys autonomous vehicles (AVs) powered by our innovative Multi‑Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology that literally reimagines the way AVs think. Our vehicles do more than just drive themselves — they provide value to communities, bridge public transit gaps and move people where they need to go safely, easily and with a lot more fun. We’re building the world’s best autonomy system to reimagine transit by minimizing congestion, expanding access and encouraging better land use in order to foster more green, vibrant and livable spaces. Since our founding in 2017, we’ve given more than 500,000 autonomous rides to real people around the globe. And we’re just getting started. We’re hiring people who share our passion for building the future, today, solving real‑world problems and seeing the impact of their work. Join us.

Job Summary

The Director of Perception will be responsible for leading the vision, strategy, and technical roadmap of the Autonomy Perception team at May Mobility. The Director of Perception plays a key role in advancing May’s core autonomy software stack, ensuring that May’s unique, innovative MPDM architecture operates on high quality data from sensors and sensor processing algorithms.

This is a unique opportunity to sit at the crossroads of cutting‑edge autonomous driving technology, transformative mobility, and the products that enable change in the transportation landscape of cities today.

This position reports to the Sr. Director of Autonomy and is responsible for providing world‑class leadership to our autonomy engineering managers and engineers, in order to propel their professional success as they develop industry‑leading technology advancements.

Responsibilities

• Be a technical thought leader to champion May Mobility’s mission, vision, values and company priorities to develop and execute autonomy strategy with fellow executives and engineering leaders.
• Work cross‑functionally with Vehicle Engineering, Product, and Operations leaders to solve and deploy solutions to autonomy perception challenges.
• Deliver innovative and robust advances to May’s perception technology including measurable improvements to object detection, classification, tracking, and prediction.
• Ensure May’s core perception technologies operate efficiently and effectively in commercial deployments, including supporting effective triage and resolution of issues related to this technology.
• Maintain an understanding of related research fields including machine learning, end‑to‑end learned systems, tracking systems, multi‑sensor fusion, and behavior prediction.
• Lead design and specification of next‑generation sensor suites to maximize May’s perception system performance and optimize cost. Work with systems and hardware teams to support prototyping and evaluating future systems.
• Develop and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to track autonomy performance.
• Identify key gaps and challenges in May’s autonomy perception technology.
• Construct and execute a roadmap to solve key challenges and work with other autonomy leaders to synchronize this roadmap with the roadmaps of other functions.
• Identify monthly, quarterly and yearly milestones to iteratively improve performance in both the short and long term.
• Take responsibility for the overall planning, execution, and success of complex technical projects and provide the team with technical leadership.
• Help set perception team hiring targets. Interview, hire, and manage a diverse team of talented perception engineers and scientists.
• Oversee the escalation of critical issues and opportunities within the autonomy team’s leadership, driving clear recommendations to maximize the effectiveness of the team with respect to company priorities and strategy.

Skills and Abilities

• Deep technical knowledge and demonstrated success in delivering innovative solutions in one or more of the fields of multi‑sensor fusion, object detection, scene segmentation, tracking, and behavior prediction.
• A demonstrated strong attention to detail with the ability to understand, track, and efficiently mitigate technical, integration, and personnel risks.
• Demonstrated success in working in uncertain work environments with an ability to turn concepts and problems that are uncertain into effective, executable plans to resolve these issues.
• A proven ability to get the best out of others, set goals and expectations for others, communicate clearly and honestly, and discuss difficult topics.
• An ability to clearly and concisely communicate technical concepts including root cause analysis, technical challenges and their solutions, and results backed by data.
• Proven ability to work with other peers in related technical areas to jointly solve larger system issues.
• Proven ability to deliver under tight schedules.

Qualifications and Experience

• 10+ years of engineering experience.
• PhD or masters degree in a relevant, highly technical field (e.g., robotics, computer science, computer engineering, aerospace engineering, physics).
• A demonstrated ability to solve complex autonomy problems as a principal investigator, staff or principal engineer, or director (or equivalent role).
• 7+ years of software‑focused engineering experience solving challenging robotics problems in mission critical software and/or robotic systems.
• Experience leading a team of 10+ engineers – setting goals, leading by example, handling challenging situations and failures.
• Previous experience as an individual contributor successfully developing and deploying innovative solutions in the autonomous vehicle or related space.
• 5+ years of management experience.
• Experience developing and/or using MPDM.
• Previous experience growing a team, crafting hiring plans, designing and conducting interviews, reviewing candidates, and making hiring decisions.
• Deep understanding of the challenges facing autonomous vehicles as well as the state of the art in autonomy.
• Previous startup experience.

Physical Requirements

• Standard office working conditions which includes but is not limited to prolonged sitting, prolonged standing, prolonged computer use.

Benefits and Perks

• Comprehensive healthcare suite including medical, dental, vision, life, and disability plans. Domestic partners who have been residing together at least one year are also eligible to participate.
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Healthcare and Dependent Care Accounts available.
• Rich retirement benefits, including an immediately vested employer safe harbor match.
• Generous paid parental leave as well as a phased return to work.
• Flexible vacation policy in addition to paid company holidays.
• Total Wellness Program providing numerous resources for overall wellbeing.

Salary Range

$220,000 - $300,000 USD

May Mobility is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants for employment will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetics or any other legally protected basis. Below, you have the opportunity to share your preferred gender pronouns, gender, ethnicity, and veteran status with May Mobility to help us identify areas of improvement in our hiring and recruitment processes. Completion of these questions is entirely voluntary. Any information you choose to provide will be kept confidential, and will not impact the hiring decision in any way. If you believe that you will need any type of accommodation, please let us know.