Lead Real-Time HD Map Estimator for Autonomy

applied; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401k with match

Paid time off

Learning stipends

Job summary

Applied Intuition is seeking a senior software engineer to own the live-map estimation stack end-to-end in Sunnyvale, CA. You will fuse HD map priors with live perception into a real-time world estimate, and design interfaces and contracts across the onboard stack.

You will implement map-change detection, define trust contracts for planners, and build robust evaluation pipelines with ground-truth metrics to prevent regressions. Strong C++ and real-time embedded know-how are essential.

Qualifications

• 5+ years building production software including at least one shipped system where you owned the estimation core.
• State estimation fundamentals proven in production: factor graphs and/or filtering, data association, uncertainty representation and propagation, and 3D geometry and transforms.
• Experience fusing heterogeneous sources such as prior map data, perception output, and raw sensors into a single world estimate, with rigorous error characterization.
• Strong modern C++ and the ability to make estimation code meet real-time budgets on embedded compute.
• Rigorous evaluation practice: built ground-truth or metrics pipelines and used them to hold a shipped operating point and prevent regressions.
• Judgment about uncertainty: understands the difference between an error that degrades gracefully and one that is catastrophic, and designs the system accordingly.

Responsibilities

• Own the onboard live-map estimator end to end: fuse HD map priors with live perception into a single, real-time estimate of the world the rest of the stack can trust.
• Build our onboard map change detection: classify boundary shifts, stop-line moves, and road closures from map-perception divergence and define when the planner should stop trusting the map.
• Define the map trust contracts the planner builds against: confidence semantics, degraded-mode behavior, and operating points across vehicle programs.
• Build the evaluation backbone, ground-truth and metrics pipelines, operating points, and regression testing that keep estimator and detector quality from drifting.
• Ship estimation code in modern C++ that meets real-time budgets on embedded compute.
• Extend the loop offboard over time: aggregate divergence detections across fleet drive logs into map freshness and correction pipelines.

Skills

State estimation

Production software

C++ RT

HD maps

System interfaces

Tools

GTSAM

Job description

Applied Intuition is seeking a senior software engineer to own the live-map estimation stack end-to-end in Sunnyvale, CA. You will fuse HD map priors with live perception into a real-time world estimate, and design interfaces and contracts across the onboard stack.

You will implement map-change detection, define trust contracts for planners, and build robust evaluation pipelines with ground-truth metrics to prevent regressions. Strong C++ and real-time embedded know-how are essential.