Engineer Manager - Perception, Self-Driving Systems

applied; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health, dental, vision coverage

401k retirement benefits with employer match

Learning and wellness stipends

Job summary

Applied Intuition is seeking a Technical Lead Manager in Sunnyvale, California, to drive the perception model for autonomous vehicles. The role includes managing perception systems, training models, and leading a team of engineers. Ideal candidates should have extensive experience in ML/deep learning, managing teams, and deploying perception models in real-time constraints.

The compensation package includes base salary, equity options, and comprehensive benefits. The position emphasizes leading innovation in perception technology across varied environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in ML/deep learning.
• 2+ years managing a perception team.
• Experience with production perception systems.
• Track record deploying perception models.
• Strong software engineering skills in Python and C++.

Responsibilities

• Own the perception model end-to-end.
• Drive a camera-first perception strategy.
• Lead training and iteration cycles.
• Manage model performance across various conditions.
• Work directly with OEM customer programs.
• Recruit and develop a team of perception engineers.

Skills

ML/deep learning for perception

Management of a perception team

Production perception systems

Software engineering in Python and C++

Scaling perception models

Job description

About the role

Applied Intuition builds the software infrastructure for autonomous vehicles across passenger cars, trucking, mining, and defense. Our Self-Driving Systems (SDS) team develops production‑grade autonomy stacks deployed on real vehicles across multiple continents, from highway trucking in Japan to urban ADAS in the United States and Europe.

We are looking for a Technical Lead Manager to own the perception model at the core of our autonomy stack. This is a single combined model: shared backbone, multi‑task heads, serving every SDS program from the same codebase. The same model runs on a passenger car in Los Angeles, a truck in rural Japan, and an offroad vehicle in the Philippines. Different sensor configurations, different road geometries, different weather distributions, one model. You will lead the team that trains, evaluates, and ships this model, and you will be hands‑on in the architecture and training decisions that drive its performance.

At Applied Intuition, you will:

• Own the perception model end-to-end: architecture, training, evaluation, and deployment. The core challenge is building a model that generalizes across geographies, road types, sensor setups, and environmental conditions without per-vertical forks.
• Drive a camera-first perception strategy. The goal is to progressively reduce dependencies on HD maps and lidar. How to get there is part of the job.
• Lead training and iteration cycles hands‑on. You will be in the data, the eval dashboards, and the failure analysis. When perception regresses in a new geography or road type, you own understanding why and fixing it.
• Own model performance across the full deployment surface: highway, urban, residential, ramps, complex intersections, poor weather, hilly terrain. You care about on‑vehicle driving outcomes, not just offline metrics.
• Manage the model lifecycle from training through quantization and deployment on embedded compute, including device‑specific optimizations. Close the gap between what the model does offboard and what it does on the vehicle.
• Work directly with OEM customer programs to understand sensor configurations, target ODDs, and performance requirements. Translate these into model architecture and data strategy.
• Recruit, develop, and technically lead a team of perception engineers. Set high technical standards and create a culture of rigorous experimentation and measurement.

We’re looking for someone who has:

• 5+ years in ML/deep learning for perception or 3D scene understanding. Deep hands‑on experience training and deploying vision models at scale.
• 2+ years managing a perception team, with ability to both set direction and contribute to architecture and training decisions directly.
• Experience building production perception systems, especially camera‑only or camera‑first solutions.
• Track record deploying perception models to embedded hardware under real‑time latency and compute constraints, including device‑specific optimizations.
• Strong software engineering in Python and C++, comfortable across the stack from training code to onboard inference integration.
• Experience scaling perception models across multiple geographies, sensor setups, or vehicle platforms.

Nice to have:

• Deep familiarity with transformer‑based architectures for 3D perception, BEV representations, multi‑task learning, and dense prediction.
• Familiarity with occupancy‑based scene representations, sparse query‑based architectures, or temporal aggregation approaches.
• Experience reducing or removing map dependencies in perception systems.
• Background in autolabel pipelines, data quality monitoring, or data flywheel design for perception.
• Experience with closed‑loop simulation for perception model evaluation (neural sim, log sim, scenario‑based testing).
• Experience at an AV company that has shipped perception to production.

Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package, which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage, 401k retirement benefits with employer match, learning and wellness stipends, and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.

Applied Intuition pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum intended target base salary for new hire salaries for the position. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience, credentials & certifications, educational attainment, skill level requirements, interview performance, and the level and scope of the position.

Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471, Appendix A to Subpart A), relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.