Senior Autonomy Planner Engineer — Real-Time Robotics

Visa Hunt; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 247,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan with employer matching

16 weeks paid parental leave

wellness benefits

commuter benefits match

paid time off

paid sick leave

medical benefits

dental benefits

vision benefits

11 paid holidays

disability and basic life insurance

family-forming assistance

mental health program

Job summary

DoorDash is seeking a seasoned Senior Planner Engineer to design, implement, and deploy real-time behavior and motion planning for autonomous delivery systems in complex urban environments. You will lead root-cause analyses, build robust evaluation and simulation frameworks, and work with perception, prediction, controls, and platform teams to improve planner robustness and efficiency.

This role requires advanced degrees or equivalent experience in CS/EE/Robotics, plus strong C++

Qualifications

• Candidate has BS/MS/PhD in CS, EE, Robotics, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proficiency with AI coding tools across the full software lifecycle (design, generate, test, release).
• Strong C++ software engineering experience building robust, production-quality systems.
• Experience developing or deploying motion planning, robotics, or real-time decision-making systems.
• Data-driven evaluation, simulation, and performance metrics to guide engineering decisions.

Responsibilities

• Design and ship real-time behavior and motion planning features for complex urban/suburb driving scenarios.
• Lead root-cause analysis and systematically eliminate planner-related disengagements and long-tail failures.
• Build scalable evaluation, simulation, and validation frameworks for safe rollout to new geo-fenced regions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with perception, prediction, controls, and platform teams to deliver end-to-end autonomy improvements.
• Contribute to architecture decisions that improve planner robustness, generalization, and computational efficiency.

Skills

C++ engineering

Robotics experience

AI tools

Motion planning

Data-driven evaluation

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/EE/Robotics

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

Cursor

Job description

DoorDash is seeking a seasoned Senior Planner Engineer to design, implement, and deploy real-time behavior and motion planning for autonomous delivery systems in complex urban environments. You will lead root-cause analyses, build robust evaluation and simulation frameworks, and work with perception, prediction, controls, and platform teams to improve planner robustness and efficiency.

This role requires advanced degrees or equivalent experience in CS/EE/Robotics, plus strong C++