Senior Behavior Planning Engineer, Autonomous Vehicles

Booster; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Gatik is seeking Senior or Staff Engineers to build the core behavior planning system for autonomous vehicles in Santa Clara, CA, onsite. You will design behavior trees and C++ infrastructure, collaborating with motion planning, prediction, and control teams to deliver safe, intelligent, and robust autonomous driving solutions.

You will mentor junior engineers, evaluate planner performance, and contribute to system integration across the autonomy stack in a fast‑growing AV company.

Qualifications

• PhD with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years in robotics, autonomous systems, or behavior planning.
• Proven experience in behavior planning, including behavior trees, finite state machines, or rule-based planners.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain the core behavior planning system for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe decision-making.
• Develop and extend behavior tree architectures for hierarchical decision logic including mission planning and contingencies.
• Collaborate with motion planning, prediction, and control teams to ensure seamless transitions from decisions to trajectories.
• Build C++-based software infrastructure for behavior planning including simulation, debugging, and visualization tools.
• Evaluate planner performance in real-world and simulated environments and improve robustness.
• Participate in design reviews and system integration across the autonomy stack.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers.

Skills

Behavior planning

C++ development

Motion planning

System design

Debugging

Education

PhD in robotics/autonomous systems

Master's in robotics/autonomous systems

Tools

Behavior trees

Finite state machines

Simulation tools

Job description

Gatik is seeking Senior or Staff Engineers to build the core behavior planning system for autonomous vehicles in Santa Clara, CA, onsite. You will design behavior trees and C++ infrastructure, collaborating with motion planning, prediction, and control teams to deliver safe, intelligent, and robust autonomous driving solutions.

You will mentor junior engineers, evaluate planner performance, and contribute to system integration across the autonomy stack in a fast‑growing AV company.