Senior Autonomy Safety Engineer — Driverless Truck Tech

Kodiak; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity and annual bonuses

Medical, dental, vision plans

Flexible PTO with holidays

Dog-friendly office in Mountain View

Job summary

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. is seeking a high-impact Autonomy Safety engineer to own safety strategy for autonomous trucking systems.

You will write efficient C++ code, reason from first principles, and collaborate with autonomy software teams to ensure robust safety in perception, localization, and planning. The role requires advanced degrees, deep knowledge of kinematics, dynamics, and probabilistic methods, and hands-on work across sensor fusion, ML, CV, and control systems.

Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. in engineering, mathematics, statistics, or a related technical field.
• Deep understanding of kinematics, dynamics, and system modeling.
• Strong foundation in probability and statistics.
• Strong programming skills in C++ and/or Python.
• Hands-on work across sensor fusion, machine learning, computer vision, motion planning, and control systems.

Responsibilities

• Write C++ to search high-dimensional failure spaces at scale.
• Develop requirements for safe perception, localization, prediction, motion planning, and control.
• Identify failure modes and edge cases before they occur on-road.
• Perform hazard analysis, risk assessments, and fault tree analyses for safety cases.
• Lead testing campaigns: simulation, track, on-road, and hardware-in-the-loop.
• Pioneer new methods to meet safety targets.
• Drive cross-functional safety thinking across the team.

Skills

C++

Python

Sensor fusion

Machine learning

Computer vision

Motion planning

Control systems

Kinematics & dynamics

Probability & statistics

Safety analysis

Industry standards

Education

MS/PhD in engineering or math

Job description

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. is seeking a high-impact Autonomy Safety engineer to own safety strategy for autonomous trucking systems.

You will write efficient C++ code, reason from first principles, and collaborate with autonomy software teams to ensure robust safety in perception, localization, and planning. The role requires advanced degrees, deep knowledge of kinematics, dynamics, and probabilistic methods, and hands-on work across sensor fusion, ML, CV, and control systems.