Senior Motion Planning Engineer for Autonomous Trucks

PlusAI, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Catered lunch

Unlimited snacks and beverages

Competitive salary and benefits, 401(k

Job summary

PlusAI, Inc. in Silicon Valley seeks a Senior/Staff Software Engineer for Motion Planning to design and implement planning algorithms that enable autonomous trucks to drive safely and smoothly in real-world scenarios.

You will influence decisions from high-level planning to precise trajectory generation on production platforms. The role requires strong C++ production skills, ROS experience, and familiarity with CasADi/Acados.

Qualifications

• MS with 1–2 years of relevant experience, or PhD in CS, robotics, or a 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 (kinematics, dynamics) fundamentals.
• Experience designing, implementing, and refining planning algorithms on a real-world robotic or vehicle platform.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across teams and derive solutions from cross-functional input.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement planning algorithms for decision-making and trajectory generation in production-grade systems.
• Bring robotics and ML techniques from research into a production-safe system.
• Reason about complex driving scenarios under uncertainty and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Utilize modern C++ numerical optimization frameworks (e.g., CasADi, Acados) and tools (ROS, Git) to integrate algorithms.
• Partner with ML and prediction teams to integrate probabilistic and multi-future representations into planning decisions.
• Perform system diagnostics and tuning using internal and open-source visualization tools.
• Communicate designs clearly and obtain reviews before implementation.

Skills

C++

Python

Robotics

Math fundamentals

Communication

Education

MS or PhD in CS/Robotics

Tools

ROS

CasADi

Acados

Git

Job description

PlusAI, Inc. in Silicon Valley seeks a Senior/Staff Software Engineer for Motion Planning to design and implement planning algorithms that enable autonomous trucks to drive safely and smoothly in real-world scenarios.

You will influence decisions from high-level planning to precise trajectory generation on production platforms. The role requires strong C++ production skills, ROS experience, and familiarity with CasADi/Acados.