PhD Motion Planning Engineer for Autonomous Driving

Didi Labs; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 52,000 - 74,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Intern benefits

Ongoing program

Job summary

DiDi Autonomous Driving seeks a motivated PhD graduate to advance planning capabilities for autonomous vehicles in a hands-on internship in San Jose. You will apply algorithm design and system integration to strengthen behavioral planning, trajectory optimization, and multi-agent coordination.

You will collaborate with Perception, Prediction, and Control teams to build a robust autonomy stack, deliver safe and smooth trajectories, and work with real-world data and simulation.

Qualifications

• PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• Research or internship in motion planning, behavioral planning, trajectory optimization, or multi-agent modeling.
• Publications in top-tier conferences (e.g., RSS, ICRA, IROS, CVPR, NeurIPS, CoRL).
• Hands-on experience in C++ for real-time algorithms.

Responsibilities

• Implement novel solutions for Behavioral Planning, enabling high-level decisions for lane changes, merges, and multi-agent interactions.
• Design and optimize motion planning algorithms with geometry-based path reasoning and context-aware speed planning.
• Develop core geometry and velocity planning systems for safe, comfortable trajectories across diverse scenarios.
• Model complex driving environments and agent behaviors to support planning under uncertainty.
• Formulate cost functions and optimization frameworks balancing safety, comfort, and efficiency.
• Analyze, test, and debug system performance using simulation and real-world data.
• Collaborate with researchers across Perception, Prediction, and Control to integrate the autonomy stack.

Skills

Motion planning

Behavioral planning

Trajectory optimization

Multi-agent modeling

C++

Publications

Education

PhD in Robotics

PhD in Computer Science

PhD in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Python

Job description

DiDi Autonomous Driving seeks a motivated PhD graduate to advance planning capabilities for autonomous vehicles in a hands-on internship in San Jose. You will apply algorithm design and system integration to strengthen behavioral planning, trajectory optimization, and multi-agent coordination.

You will collaborate with Perception, Prediction, and Control teams to build a robust autonomy stack, deliver safe and smooth trajectories, and work with real-world data and simulation.