Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning

Gatik; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Job summary

Gatik is seeking a Senior/Staff Software Engineer specializing in Motion Planning to enhance their autonomous vehicle systems. Key responsibilities include designing algorithms for path planning and ensuring safe operations on urban roads. Candidates should have relevant advanced degrees and experience with real-time control systems. This onsite role in Mountain View offers an opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge technology in autonomous logistics.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. with 3+ years, or Master’s with 5+ years experience.
• Deep expertise in planning, optimization, and algorithms.
• Experience in designing and implementing behavior/control algorithms.

Responsibilities

• Design and test algorithms for motion and behavior planning.
• Ensure safe vehicle behavior during path planning.
• Develop tools for debugging issues and simulate planning.

Skills

C++

Python

Search-Based Planning

Model Predictive Control

Optimization

Trajectory Generation

Education

Ph.D.

Master’s degree

Job description

Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning

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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 Mountain View, CA office!

What you'll do

• Design, build, and test the algorithms for motion and behavior planning for autonomous driving on urban roads and highways.
• Provide end-to-end ownership of the path planning and decision-making systems, ensuring that the behavior of Gatik's vehicles is safe, smooth, and predictable to other road users.
• Build tools that prioritize and debug issues and contribute to the development of simulation architecture to enable Gatik's software stack to be trained, tested, prototyped, and validated in a virtual environment.
• Develop a thorough understanding of the constraints and challenges of path planning for Gatik's unique use case and ODD.
• Own the vehicle functions end to end, integrate the algorithms into Gatik's software stack, and mature them to production quality.
• Automate scenario generation of on-road experiences using analytical and learned techniques

What we're looking for

• Ph.D. with 3+ years of industry experience or Master’s degree with 5+ years of relevant industry experience
• Deep expertise in search-based planning, model predictive control (MPC), optimization, and/or trajectory generation
• Proficient in C++ with hands-on experience in Python
• Proven experience in designing and implementing real-time, on-device behavior and motion planning/control algorithms
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate cross-functionally with engineers on system integration and large-scale product deployment
• Strong background in conducting thorough code and design reviews

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.

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

Notable News

• Forbes: Forget robotaxis. Upstart Gatik sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs
• Tech Brew: Gatik AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry
• Business Wire: Gatik Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework
• Auto Futures: Autonomous Trucking Group Gatik Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS
• Automotive News: Gatik foresees hundreds of self-driving trucks on road soon, and that's just the beginning
• Bloomberg: Autonomous Vehicle Startup Takes Off by Picking Off Easier Routes
• Reuters: Driverless vehicles on limited routes bump along despite US robotaxi scrutiny

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.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Engineering and Other

• Industries

  Software Development and Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage

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Inferred from the description for this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

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