Senior Motion Planning Engineer - Autonomous Driving (Remote)

Ladders; United States; Remote; USD 171,000 - 261,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

HSA/FSA

Retirement plan

Paid vacation

Tuition assistance

Employee discounts

Job summary

Ladders is seeking a Senior Software Engineer - Motion Planning, Secondary Driving System to join a leader in the Manufacturing & Automotive space. This role focuses on building and optimizing safety-critical software enabling advanced driving capabilities under real-time constraints. Location: Remote - US based candidates only.

Compensation: $170,600 – $261,300 annually. You will own features from requirements through on-road testing and collaborate with perception, state estimation, and safety

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or complex real-time/control systems.
• Strong proficiency in modern C++ (C++14/17 or later) and experience with large, multi-contributor codebases; familiarity with Python for tooling and data analysis.
• Experience in motion planning and controls, including trajectory generation, optimal control, and feedback control design.
• Experience integrating with perception and prediction pipelines, even if focus is on planning and controls.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering reliable, high-quality autonomous or robotics software under latency/compute constraints.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across disciplines, including ML, systems, platform, and safety.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize production-grade C++ software across the secondary driving system stack, integrating ML-based perception with analytical planners and classical controllers.
• Design and implement planning and controls algorithms, including lane-keeping and obstacle avoidance.
• Collaborate with state estimation and mapping partners to define interfaces for reliable system engagement during primary stack failures.
• Own features end-to-end, from requirements clarification to on-road testing and iteration based on metrics.
• Champion software engineering best practices, including clean interfaces, code reviews, and automated testing.
• Analyze and debug complex integration issues using logs and telemetry to root-cause problems in perception, planning, and controls.
• Mentor and unblock other engineers through design discussions and code reviews.

Job description

Ladders is seeking a Senior Software Engineer - Motion Planning, Secondary Driving System to join a leader in the Manufacturing & Automotive space. This role focuses on building and optimizing safety-critical software enabling advanced driving capabilities under real-time constraints. Location: Remote - US based candidates only.

Compensation: $170,600 – $261,300 annually. You will own features from requirements through on-road testing and collaborate with perception, state estimation, and safety