Senior Motion Planning Engineer - Autonomous Truck Tech

Socket.dev; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Catered free lunch

Unlimited snacks and beverages

401(k) plan

Job summary

PlusAI is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for the Motion Planning team to design and implement planning technologies enabling autonomous trucks to handle complex driving scenarios safely and human-like. You’ll work across the decision-making stack, from high-level reasoning to precise trajectory generation.

You’ll bring production-grade software experience in C++, plus robotics expertise, strong math/physics fundamentals, and collaboration across ML, prediction, and safety teams.

Qualifications

• MS with 1–2 years of relevant experience or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, or related field.
• Strong production software development skills in C++; Python experience a plus.
• Robotics expertise in path planning, motion planning, trajectory generation, behavior planning or optimal control.
• Strong math (geometry, analysis, probability) and physics fundamentals.
• Experience designing, implementing, refining planning algorithms on real-world robotic/vehicle platforms.
• Strong oral and written communication skills to collaborate across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement algorithms for decision-making and trajectory generation with safety, comfort, and reliability across driving conditions.
• Translate research into production-grade, safety-critical planning components.
• Reason about complex driving scenarios under uncertainty (merges, junctions, interactions).
• Use CasADi/Acados, ROS, Git to integrate planning algorithms into production stack.
• Collaborate with ML and prediction teams to integrate probabilistic, multi-future scenario representations.
• Perform system diagnostics and tuning with internal and open-source tools (webviz).
• Communicate designs clearly and secure high-level design approvals before implementation.

Skills

C++

Python

Robotics

Math & Physics

Communication

Education

MS/PhD in CS or Robotics

Tools

CasADi

Acados

ROS

Git

Job description

PlusAI is hiring a Senior Software Engineer for the Motion Planning team to design and implement planning technologies enabling autonomous trucks to handle complex driving scenarios safely and human-like. You’ll work across the decision-making stack, from high-level reasoning to precise trajectory generation.

You’ll bring production-grade software experience in C++, plus robotics expertise, strong math/physics fundamentals, and collaboration across ML, prediction, and safety teams.