Senior Autonomy Mapping & Localization Engineer

Kodiak; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity and annual bonuses

Medical, Dental, Vision plans

Flexible PTO and holidays

Dog-friendly office and free catered/l

Free EV charging

Job summary

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. is seeking a Senior Autonomy Software Engineer for the CLAM team in Mountain View. You will set strategy for onboard navigation and pose estimation, leading sensor fusion across IMU, camera, and lidar to deliver robust localization.

You will mentor engineers and drive system-wide performance improvements with rapid iteration. The role emphasizes strong C++ software engineering, state estimation expertise, and experience transforming raw sensor data into reliable 6-DOF pose.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's or PhD in navigation/localization/robotics or related field.
• Expert in C++ with strong software engineering skills.
• Experience transforming raw sensor data (GNSS, IMU, wheel speed) into 6-DOF pose.
• Background in state estimation techniques (Kalman filtering, factor graphs).
• Experience with computer vision and/or odometry from point clouds.
• Mentoring engineers and elevating team practices.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical strategy and architecture for onboard navigation and pose estimation systems.
• Lead design and development of sensor fusion across IMU, camera, and lidar sensors.
• Drive the direction of visual and lidar odometry algorithms and evaluate build-vs-adopt tradeoffs.
• Define and evangelize navigation metrics and evaluation methodology across the org.
• Serve as a technical escalation point for localization problems.
• Evaluate sensor performance and optimize sensor selection.
• Verify sensor calibrations, settings, and uncertainty characterizations.

Skills

C++ proficiency

Navigation localization

Sensor fusion

Pose estimation

Mentoring

Team collaboration

Computer vision

Education

BS/MS/PhD in related field

Tools

Kalman filtering

Factor graphs

Visual odometry

Point clouds

Lidar/GNSS/IMU data

Job description

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. is seeking a Senior Autonomy Software Engineer for the CLAM team in Mountain View. You will set strategy for onboard navigation and pose estimation, leading sensor fusion across IMU, camera, and lidar to deliver robust localization.

You will mentor engineers and drive system-wide performance improvements with rapid iteration. The role emphasizes strong C++ software engineering, state estimation expertise, and experience transforming raw sensor data into reliable 6-DOF pose.