Senior Software Engineer, Motion Planning

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

Job summary

Gatik, a leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, seeks a Senior Software Engineer to advance motion planning and decision-making systems for production deployment. You design and implement planners, integrate perception and control, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver safe, efficient autonomous driving capabilities.

The role is based in Santa Clara, CA and requires hands-on development in C++ with real-time systems, plus strong background in robotics and optimization

Qualifications

• Ph.D. with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years in robotics, motion planning, or autonomous systems.
• Strong background in lattice-based planning, trajectory optimization or related methods.
• Production-quality C++ experience for real-time or safety-critical systems.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize the motion planning stack for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe, comfortable, and efficient driving in diverse real-world environments.
• Develop lattice-based planners, sampling-based planners, and optimization-based methods for generating dynamically feasible, collision-free trajectories.
• Integrate constraints from perception, prediction, and control to generate context-aware motion plans under uncertainty.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with behavior planning, control, and mapping teams to ensure robust and consistent planning behavior.
• Optimize and maintain C++-based infrastructure for trajectory generation, evaluation, and deployment in real-time onboard systems.
• Analyze closed-loop simulation and on-road performance; identify and resolve failure cases involving traffic interactions, occlusions, or dynamic obstacles.

Skills

Lattice-based planning

Trajectory optimization

Model predictive control

Search-based planning

C++ development

Education

Ph.D. in robotics / motion planning / autonomous systems

Master's degree in robotics, CS or related field

Tools

C++

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Motion Planning

Who we are

Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation.

The company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations.

About the role

We are seeking senior or staff software engineers to join our planning team to build motion planning and decision-making systems and help mature new products all the way through to production. Our planning team calculates safe paths for the autonomous vehicle to follow using mapping data, localization data, waypoints, and predicted actors around the vehicle. Your contribution will improve planning for emergency situations and planning for complicated maneuvers such as loading dock access and variable lane changes.

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

What you'll do

• Design, implement, and optimize the motion planning stack for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe, comfortable, and efficient driving in diverse real-world environments.
• Develop lattice-based planners, sampling-based planners, and optimization-based methods for generating dynamically feasible, collision-free trajectories.
• Integrate constraints from perception, prediction, and control to generate context-aware motion plans under uncertainty.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with behavior planning, control, and mapping teams to ensure robust and consistent planning behavior.
• Optimize and maintain C++-based infrastructure for trajectory generation, evaluation, and deployment in real-time onboard systems.
• Analyze closed-loop simulation and on-road performance; identify and resolve failure cases involving traffic interactions, occlusions, or dynamic obstacles.

What we're looking for

• Ph.D. with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years of experience in robotics, motion planning, or autonomous systems.
• Deep expertise in at least two of the following: lattice-based planning, trajectory optimization, model predictive control, or search-based planning.
• Strong proficiency in C++, with experience in production-quality code for real-time or safety-critical systems.
• Solid understanding of vehicle dynamics, control interfaces, and motion feasibility constraints.
• Experience with simulation tools and debugging motion planner behavior in realistic driving environments.
• Knowledge of diffusion models and/or Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models is a strong plus.
• Excellent analytical and system-level debugging skills; strong communication and cross-functional collaboration capabilities.

Salary Range - $180,000- $260,000

More about Gatik

Founded in 2017 by experts in autonomous vehicle technology, Gatik has rapidly expanded its presence to Mountain View, Dallas-Fort Worth, Arkansas, and Toronto. As the first and only company to achieve fully driverless middle-mile commercial deliveries, Gatik holds a unique and defensible position in the AV industry, with a clear trajectory toward sustainable growth and profitability.

We have delivered complete, proprietary AV technology - an integration of software and hardware - to enable earlier successes for our clients in constrained Level 4 autonomy. By choosing the middle mile – with defined point-to-point delivery, we have simplified some of the more complex AV challenges, enabling us to achieve full autonomy ahead of competitors. Given extensive knowledge of Gatik’s well-defined, fixed route ODDs and hybrid architecture, we are able to hyper-optimize our models with exponentially less data, establish gate-keeping mechanisms to maintain explainability, and ensure continued safety of the system for unmanned operations.

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.

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