(Senior) Software Engineer - Evaluation

Pony.ai Inc.; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)

Retirement Plan (Traditional and Roth 401k)

Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)

Paid Time Off (Vacation & Public Holidays)

Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)

Short Term & Long Term Disability

Free Food & Snacks

Job summary

Pony.ai Inc. is seeking a talented engineer to design and architect data processing systems for our autonomous mobility technology in Fremont, California. Ideal candidates will possess strong programming skills in C/C++ and Python, along with a solid foundation in mathematics and theoretical computer science.

This role involves building high-performance backend services and processing pipelines while ensuring reliability and low latency. Compensation includes a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package including health care and retirement plans.

Qualifications

• Strong programming skills in C/C++, Python, and software design.
• Strong foundation in mathematics and theoretical computer science.
• Solid engineering discipline and interest in building large-scale systems.
• Experience in large data set processing and familiarity with real-time systems.
• Full stack experience including both front end and back end is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design and build end-to-end data processing pipelines for large-scale data collection.
• Implement high-performance backend services to handle large-scale event processing.
• Lead the design of evaluation metrics and testing frameworks.
• Drive architectural decisions and technology selection.
• Establish system monitoring and automated alerting frameworks.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Python programming

Software design

Mathematics

Theoretical computer science

Statistics analysis

Education

BS/MS or Ph.D in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Large Language Models (LLMs)

Job description

Founded in 2016 in Silicon Valley, Pony.ai has quickly become a global leader in autonomous mobility and is a pioneer in extending autonomous mobility technologies and services at a rapidly expanding footprint of sites around the world. Operating Robotaxi, Robotruck and Personally Owned Vehicles (POV) business units, Pony.ai is an industry leader in the commercialization of autonomous driving and is committed to developing the safest autonomous driving capabilities on a global scale. Pony.ai’s leading position has been recognized, with CNBC ranking Pony.ai #10 on its CNBC Disruptor list of the 50 most innovative and disruptive tech companies of 2022. In June 2023, Pony.ai was recognized on the XPRIZE and Bessemer Venture Partners inaugural “XB100” 2023 list of the world’s top 100 private deep tech companies, ranking #12 globally. As of August 2023, Pony.ai has accumulated nearly 21 million miles of autonomous driving globally. Pony.ai went public at NASDAQ in November 2024.

Responsibilities

• Design and build end-to-end data processing pipelines and toolchains to support large-scale data collection, batch processing, curation, and multi-dimensional evaluation.
• Design and implement high-performance backend services and distributed architectures, capable of handling large-scale real-time event processing.
• Collaborate across complex business components to lead the design of targeted system-level evaluation metrics, testing frameworks, and advanced simulation environments.
• Leverage and improve industry-leading, open-source distributed technologies to continuously advance infrastructure capabilities and processing efficiency.
• Drive critical architectural decisions and technology selection, ensuring rigorous standards for security, stability, scalability, and high performance.
• Establish and maintain comprehensive system monitoring, fine-grained observability metrics, and automated alerting frameworks to ensure low latency and reliable production operations.
• Build and optimize downstream engineering workflows for Large Language Models (LLMs), programmatically steering model reasoning, establishing guardrails, and mitigating hallucinations to ensure reliable outputs.

Qualifications

• Strong programming skills in C/C++, Python, and software design
• Strong foundation in mathematics and theoretical computer science, such as linear algebra, calculus, graph theory, computational geometry, combinatorial optimization algorithms, stochastic processes, and complexity analysis.
• Possessing solid engineering discipline, or demonstrating strong interest and potential in building large-scale systems, with the ability to maximize performance while keeping complexity and cost to a minimum.
• Pursuing a BS/MS or Ph.D in Computer Science or a related field
• Experience in large data set processing and familiarity with real time systems
• Solid experience in a fast-paced and structured engineering environment
• Full stack experience including both front end and back end is preferred
• Statistics analysis experience is preferred

Compensation and Benefits

Base Salary Range: $120,000 - $250,000 Annually

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on many factors, including the candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Compensation and this role may be eligible for bonuses/incentives and restricted stock units.

Also, we provide the following benefits to eligible employees:

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan (Traditional and Roth 401k)
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation & Public Holidays)
• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Free Food & Snacks