Senior Software Engineer – Localization (Visual Odometry)

Gatik; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Gatik is seeking a Senior/Staff Software Engineer with a strong background in Visual Odometry and Localization to join our autonomy team in Santa Clara, CA. You will build real-time VO pipelines, integrate VO with IMU/GPS, and drive accurate vehicle localization for our autonomous trucks.

Ideal candidates have hands-on VO/VIO experience, strong C++ engineering skills, and a track record deploying VO/SLAM on AV platforms. This role is onsite five days a week at our Santa Clara office.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years in robotics, computer vision, or autonomy; 3+ years in Visual Odometry or VIO.
• Experience on Autonomous Vehicle platforms (development, testing, deployment).
• Expert proficiency in C++ (C++14/17/20) and modern software practices.
• Solid understanding of epipolar geometry, camera calibration, bundle adjustment, optimization.
• Hands-on with VO/SLAM libraries such as ORB-SLAM, VINS-Fusion, OpenVINS.
• Experience with ROS/ROS2, Linux, and version control.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop real-time Visual Odometry pipelines using monocular, stereo, or RGB-D inputs.
• Implement robust camera-based localization including VIO, feature tracking, motion estimation, and scale recovery.
• Integrate VO systems with IMU, GPS, and sensor data to improve pose estimation.
• Collaborate with mapping, perception, and control teams to integrate localization with the AV stack.
• Develop production-quality C++ code for real-time performance on embedded compute platforms.
• Analyze system performance across diverse conditions and drive reliability improvements.
• Participate in code reviews, mentor team members, and contribute to architectural decisions.
• Stay up to date with SLAM, VIO, VO advances and move promising techniques to production.

Skills

C++ Proficiency

VO/VIO algorithms

ROS/ROS2

Camera calibration

SLAM/VO libraries

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in CS/Robotics

Tools

ORB-SLAM

VINS-Fusion

OpenVINS

CUDA

Job description

Who We Are

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

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.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior or Staff Software Engineer with a strong background in Visual Odometry (VO) and Localization to join our autonomy team. This role is critical to building precise, real-time vehicle localization systems using camera-based perception for autonomous driving applications. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience deploying VO systems in real-world environments, particularly in the autonomous vehicle (AV) domain, and brings solid C++ engineering skills to architect robust, high-performance software solutions.

This role is onsite 5 days per week at our Santa Clara, CA office.

What you'll do

• Design and develop real-time Visual Odometry pipelines using monocular, stereo, or RGB-D camera inputs.
• Implement robust camera-based localization algorithms, including visual-inertial odometry (VIO), feature tracking, motion estimation, and scale recovery.
• Integrate VO systems with IMU, GPS, and other sensor data to enhance pose estimation accuracy and stability.
• Collaborate with the mapping, perception, and control teams to integrate localization with the AV software stack.
• Develop and optimize production-quality code in modern C++ for real-time performance on embedded compute platforms.
• Analyze system performance in diverse environmental conditions and drive improvements for reliability, accuracy, and robustness.
• Participate in code reviews, mentor team members, and contribute to architectural decisions.
• Stay up to date with the latest research in SLAM, VIO, and VO, and help transition promising techniques into production.

What we're looking for

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in robotics, computer vision, or autonomy; 3+ years specifically in Visual Odometry or VIO.
• Experience working on Autonomous Vehicle platforms (e.g., development, testing, or deployment of AV systems).
• Expert proficiency in C++ (C++14/17/20) and modern software engineering best practices.
• Solid understanding of epipolar geometry, camera calibration, bundle adjustment, and optimization techniques.
• Hands-on experience with open-source VO/SLAM libraries such as ORB-SLAM, VINS-Fusion, OpenVINS, or similar.
• Experience working with ROS/ROS2, Linux development environments, and version control systems.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience integrating visual odometry with Lidar, GPS, or map-based localization.
• Knowledge of GPU acceleration techniques (CUDA/OpenCV/OpenGL) for computer vision pipelines.
• Familiarity with real-world deployment constraints such as environmental variability, sensor degradation, and compute limitations.
• Experience in sensor calibration, time synchronization, and data preprocessing pipelines.
• Contributions to relevant open-source projects or publications in VO, VIO, or SLAM.

Salary Range - $170,000- $260,000

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.

Visit Gatik for more company information and Careers at Gatik for more open roles.

Notable News

For the latest company news, visit the Gatik newsroom.

• TechCrunch: Self-driving truck startup Gatik raises $200M following PepsiCo deal
• Reuters: Gatik secures $200 million in funding as autonomous freight market accelerates
• Bloomberg: Driverless Trucks Can Save Lives on America's Roads
• PepsiCo website: PepsiCo and Gatik announce multi-year agreement to deploy autonomous freight in North America
• Wall Street Journal: Driverless Trucks Are Here - and They're Delivering Bags of Doritos
• CBS News: Pepsi deploys self-driving delivery trucks
• Bloomberg: Autonomous Trucking Firm Gatik Inks Contracts Worth $600 Million
• Forbes: Hundreds' Of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For U.S. Roads
• CNBC-TV18: No more test runs: Gatik says driverless trucks are now a real, money-making business
• Forbes: Gatik And Loblaw Announce Largest Commercial Deployment Of AV Trucks

Taking care of our team

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.