Senior Simulation Infrastructure Engineer Santa Clara, CA

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

Job summary

Gatik is seeking a high-impact, technically deep Senior Simulation Infrastructure Engineer to develop, optimize, and deploy production ML models across our autonomous vehicle stack. You will collaborate with perception, prediction, planning, infrastructure, systems, and hardware teams to ensure models are efficient, scalable, and production-ready for on-vehicle and cloud workflows.

This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office, working on end-to-end model development,

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Statistics or related field.
• Open to all experience levels; leveling determined by depth of technical skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and improve models supporting perception, prediction, planning, and scene understanding.
• Optimize models using quantization, pruning, sparsification, compression, and efficient architectures.
• Profile and optimize neural networks using CUDA, TensorRT, and related technologies.
• Analyze model performance using simulation and real-world driving data.
• Build high-throughput pipelines for training, evaluation, data processing, and large-scale offline inference.
• Develop reliable pipelines for dataset curation, annotation, preprocessing, visualization, diagnostics, benchmarking, and feedback from field data.
• Partner with autonomy, systems, hardware, and infrastructure teams to integrate ML components into the broader vehicle platform.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

CUDA

TensorRT

Model deployment

Quantization

Pruning

Compression

Latency optimization

Embedded systems

Software architecture

Education

MS or PhD in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Statistics

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

CUDA

TensorRT

Job description

Senior Simulation Infrastructure Engineer

Who we are

Gatik is in the business of autonomous freight, and that business is already on the road.

Every day, Gatik’s autonomous trucks move freight for Fortune 50 retailers, grocers and consumer brands across Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and Canada, connecting distribution centers and stores and keeping goods moving. At the heart of it all is the Gatik Driver™, our proprietary Level 4 autonomous driving system, powered by scalable, interpretable AI and engineered to deliver safe, reliable, high-frequency freight operations.

Gatik’s momentum is real. With more than $600 million in contracted revenue and $200 million raised in our August 2026 Series D round, Gatik has taken one of the toughest challenges in autonomous technology and turned it into a proven commercial business.

And the market is paying attention. In 2026, Gatik earned a place on Forbes' America's Best Startup Employers list, and the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies. The Gatik Driver™ won an Edison Award for Advancements in Autonomous Driving, and Inc. named our Co-founder and Chief Engineer, Apeksha Kumavat, to its Female Founders 500 list.

There's a lot more road ahead, and some of the brightest, most driven minds in autonomous technology are building the next chapter at Gatik. We're taking on hard engineering problems, pushing the limits of what's possible and building on a commercial foundation that's already proven itself in the real world with some of the biggest companies in the world, like PepsiCo and Loblaw. If you're ambitious, love solving problems that matter and want to see your work make a real difference, you'll find plenty to get excited about here.

Abouttherole

We are seeking a high impact, technically deep Machine Learning Engineer to develop, optimize, and deploy production ML models across our autonomous vehicle (AV) stack. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building models end-to-end - from data and training through optimization and real-time deployment on autonomous vehicles.

You will work closely with perception, prediction, planning, infrastructure, systems, and hardware teams to ensure models are efficient, scalable, reliable, and production-ready for both on-vehicle and cloud workflows.

This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office!

Whatyou'lldo

• AutonomousDrivingModels:Developandimprovemodelssupportingperception,prediction,planning,andsceneunderstanding.
• EfficientNeuralNetworkDesign:Optimizemodelsusingtechniquessuchasquantization,pruning,sparsification,compression,andefficientarchitecturedesigntomeetstrictlatency,compute,memory,andpowerconstraints.
• ModelOptimization:ProfileandoptimizeneuralnetworksusingCUDA,TensorRT,andrelatedtechnologies.
• SimulationandEvaluation:Analyzemodelperformanceusingsimulationandreal-worlddrivingdata,identifyfailuremodes,anddriveimprovements.
• ScalableMLInfrastructure:Buildhigh-throughputpipelinesfortraining,evaluation,dataprocessing,andlarge-scaleofflineinference.
• DataWorkflowsandTooling:Developreliablepipelinesfordatasetcuration,annotation,preprocessing,visualization,diagnostics,benchmarking,andcontinuousfeedbackfromfielddata.
• CrossFunctionalIntegration: Partner with autonomy, systems, hardware, and infrastructure teams to ensure ML components integrate reliably into the broader vehicle platform.

Whatwe'relookingfor

• Education:MSorPhDinComputerScience,MachineLearning,Robotics,ElectricalEngineering,Statistics,Optimization,orarelatedfield.
• Experience:Opentoallexperiencelevels.Levelingwillbedeterminedbasedonexperienceandtechnicaldepth.
• Programming&Frameworks:
• StrongPythonskillsandexperiencewithframeworkssuchasPyTorchorTensorFlow.
• CoreML&SystemsExpertise:
• Experiencedeployingandoptimizingneuralnetworksforreal-time,embedded,robotics,autonomousdriving,orotherperformance-constrainedsystems.
• Experiencewithmodeloptimizationtechniquessuchasquantization,pruning,compression,andefficientarchitectures.
• Experiencewithsoftwarearchitecture,profiling,latencyoptimization,system-leveldebugging,anddataflowanalysis.
• Infrastructure&ComputeTools:
• ExperiencewithCUDAandTensorRTishighlydesirable.
• Experiencewithcloud-basedMLtrainingandevaluationpipelines,preferablyAzure.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experiencewithtransformers,multimodalmodels,diffusionmodels,worldmodels,orend-to-enddrivingmodelsisaplus.
• Experienceinautonomousdriving,robotics,orothersafety-criticalreal-timeMLsystemsisstronglypreferred.
• PublicationsordemonstratedtechnicalcontributionsinefficientML,autonomousdriving,robotics,orrelatedareasareaplus.
• Priorcontributionstolarge-scaleMLsystemsdeployedinproduction.

More about Gatik

Founded in 2017, Gatik has grown into a commercial force in autonomous freight, operating trucks daily in live customer networks across the United States and Canada. We're headquartered in Santa Clara, California, but our impact is felt on the roads and in the supply chains that keep essential goods moving for some of the biggest companies in North America.

Our trucks do some of the most demanding work in freight, running high-frequency, time-sensitive routes between distribution centers and stores, where reliability matters every single day. For our customers, that means more capacity, better service and products arriving where they need to be, when they need to be there.

Behind it all is AI-first technology built from the ground up for autonomous trucking, capable of navigating highways and surface streets and tackling the complexity of real-world logistics at scale.

For the latest company news, visit the Gatik newsroom.

At Gatik, we connect people of extraordinary talent and experience to an opportunity to create a more resilient supply chain and contribute to our environment’s sustainability. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives yet united by a bold vision and shared commitment to our values. Our culture emphasizes the importance of collaboration, respect and agility.

We at Gatik strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels they have opportunities to succeed and grow because we know that together we can do great things. We are committed to an inclusive and diverse team. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status or any legally protected status.

E-Verify Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Gatik participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Gatik AI’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A \"disabled veteran\" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A \"recently separated veteran\" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An \"active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran\" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An \"Armed forces service medal veteran\" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.