Principal Engineer - AV Labs

Uber; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 302,000 - 336,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus program

Equity award

401(k) plan

Benefits

Job summary

Uber is building AV Labs in Sunnyvale, CA to accelerate autonomous technology by turning real-world operations into high-quality data for autonomous partners. This role leads the technical strategy across complex algorithms, data platforms, and autonomy infrastructure to extract high-fidelity semantic meaning from urban edge cases for the L4 data lake.

You will mentor senior engineers, define evaluation datasets, and influence multiple teams while ensuring integration with Uber's core

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software, robotics, or autonomous systems.
• Proven leader of large-scale technical programs from conception to production.
• BS in CS/CE/Math/Physics or related field; MS/PhD preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define the strategic technical vision for AV Labs' engineering initiatives and roadmaps.
• Oversee architecture and system design for sensor dependencies and simulation frameworks.
• Mentor senior, staff, and lead engineers and set engineering standards.
• Drive platform evolution for high-quality evaluation datasets and data mining capabilities.
• Bridge AV Labs with other Uber engineering units to ensure integration and deployment.

Skills

Python

C++

Linux

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE/Math/Physics

MS or PhD in CS/Robotics/CS Vision or related field

Tools

ROS

CUDA

Job description

About the role and team

Uber is launching AV Labs to accelerate the autonomous technology ecosystem. We're building out a high-velocity team of multi-disciplinary experts to turn real-world operations into high-quality data for our autonomous partners. This team is focused on the hardest problem in AV today: unlocking real-world, long-tail driving data. Autonomy is now a data race—and Uber has an edge: We collect rare, real-world driving data at a scale and capital efficiency no one else can match.

What you’ll do

• Strategic Technical Vision: Lead the overarching technical strategy for AV Labs' engineering initiatives. Set the roadmap for complex algorithms, data platforms, and autonomy infrastructure that extract high-fidelity semantic meaning from urban edge cases to enrich our L4 data lake.
• Architecture & System Design: Provide the overarching technical vision for managing upstream sensor dependencies, evaluating large-scale simulation frameworks, and modeling real-world behavior.
• Technical Mentorship & Influence: Mentor senior, staff, and lead engineers, fostering a culture of rigorous experimentation and engineering excellence. You will serve as a technical standard-bearer and influence the architectural direction of multiple teams.
• Platform Evolution: Define the requirements for high-quality large evaluation datasets, objective performance metrics, and the ultimate data mining engine that empowers autonomous partners to query and extract precise edge cases.
• Cross-Organizational Leadership: Act as a critical bridge between AV Labs and other Uber engineering units to ensure our core architectures, evaluation platforms, and autonomous technologies are successfully integrated and deployed.

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of working experience in the Software Engineering, Robotics, or Autonomous Systems industry.
• Proven experience leading large-scale technical projects from conception to production.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related fields.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python, C++, or similar languages in Linux environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD or MS degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, or a related highly technical field.
• Extensive experience with C++, CUDA, and high-performance system optimization for onboard systems or massive offline datasets.
• Deep understanding of autonomous system architectures, sensor data pipelines, robot middleware (e.g., ROS), and offline evaluation simulation.
• Experience building and scaling foundational architectures for physical world interaction, large-scale data evaluation, or autonomy infrastructure.
• Recognized expertise in the field (e.g., relevant patents, open-source contributions, or publications).

For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD $302,000 per year - USD $336,000 per year.

You will be eligible to participate in Uber's bonus program, and may be offered an equity award & other types of comp. All full-time employees are eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. You will also be eligible for various benefits.