Senior Systems Performance Engineer

Pittsburgh Robotics Network; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); Hybrid; USD 149,000 - 198,500; Full time

Job summary

Motional is seeking a Linux Systems Performance Engineer to improve the performance, reliability, and observability of our onboard compute platform. This hybrid role is based in Pittsburgh, requiring in-office days for hands-on work and collaboration with autonomy and platform teams.

You will design low-overhead observability infrastructure, build metrics and tracing tools, investigate resource contention and latency issues, and translate findings into durable improvements across CPU, memory,

Qualifications

• Experience debugging and optimizing Linux system performance.
• Understanding OS concepts: scheduling, memory, filesystems, networking.
• Experience diagnosing resource contention, latency, and throughput in production systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and build low-overhead observability infrastructure for resource usage, latency, scheduling behavior, and system health.
• Develop metrics, tracing, profiling, and analysis tools that identify performance contention and explain system behavior.
• Improve real-time and post-event root cause analysis across CPU, memory, storage, networking, and other shared resources.
• Partner with autonomy and platform teams to investigate crashes, latency spikes, missed deadlines, resource exhaustion, and performance regressions.
• Analyze application, operating system, kernel, and hardware interactions on embedded Linux compute platforms.
• Translate investigations into durable improvements, including tooling, alerts, dashboards, performance requirements, and architectural changes.
• Define performance benchmarks and regression tests for onboard systems.
• Evaluate the performance impact of new software, hardware, and system configurations.
• Communicate findings clearly and provide actionable recommendations to cross-functional engineering teams.
• Contribute to technical roadmaps for onboard observability and system performance.

Skills

Linux performance debugging

OS concepts

Resource contention diagnosis

Perf/tracing tools

C/C++

Python automation

Telemetry analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication skills

Tools

perf

ftrace

eBPF/BPF

BCC

bpftrace

flame graphs

Job description

Careers Open Positions

Our teams are made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers, and doers. Together, we can change the world.

All Motional open positions and applications will be posted here on the official website.

Mission Summary

Motional’s Platform Infrastructure organization builds and operates the foundational onboard software systems that power our autonomous vehicles. Our responsibilities include system communications and IPC, networking, Linux operating system development and maintenance, high-speed data logging and offload, and onboard system performance optimization.

We are seeking a Linux Systems Performance Engineer to improve the performance, reliability, and observability of our onboard compute platform. This will be a hybrid role focused on both the development of new observability methods and metrics while also operating with the rest of the engineering organization to diagnose and develop solutions to improve our real-time system. You will build tools and telemetry that enable faster, and increasingly real-time, root cause analysis while partnering with autonomy teams to diagnose and resolve resource contention, crashes, latency spikes, and other complex system-level issues.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Design and build low-overhead observability infrastructure for resource usage, latency, scheduling behavior, and system health.
• Develop metrics, tracing, profiling, and analysis tools that identify performance contention and explain system behavior.
• Improve real-time and post-event root cause analysis across CPU, memory, storage, networking, and other shared resources.
• Partner with autonomy and platform teams to investigate crashes, latency spikes, missed deadlines, resource exhaustion, and performance regressions.
• Analyze application, operating system, kernel, and hardware interactions on embedded Linux compute platforms.
• Translate investigations into durable improvements, including tooling, alerts, dashboards, performance requirements, and architectural changes.
• Define performance benchmarks and regression tests for onboard systems.
• Evaluate the performance impact of new software, hardware, and system configurations.
• Communicate findings clearly and provide actionable recommendations to cross-functional engineering teams.
• Contribute to technical roadmaps for onboard observability and system performance.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong experience debugging and optimizing Linux system performance.
• Deep understanding of operating system concepts, including process scheduling, memory management, filesystems, networking, and inter-process communication.
• Experience diagnosing resource contention, latency, crashes, or throughput problems in complex production systems.
• Experience with Linux performance and tracing tools such as `perf`, ftrace, eBPF/BPF, BCC, bpftrace, flame graphs, or equivalent technologies.
• Proficiency in a systems programming language such as C or C++.
• Experience using Python, shell scripting, or similar languages for automation and data analysis.
• Ability to analyze large volumes of system telemetry and distinguish root causes from symptoms.
• Ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries and collaborate with application, infrastructure, and hardware teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex system behavior to varied audiences.

Bonus Points (not Required)

• Experience optimizing embedded Linux or automotive compute platforms.
• Experience with real-time or latency-sensitive systems.
• Experience working directly with the Linux kernel, scheduler, device drivers, or kernel instrumentation.
• Experience designing observability platforms, telemetry pipelines, or fleet-scale performance analysis systems.
• Experience with cgroups, namespaces, containers, and resource isolation.
• Experience analyzing performance across heterogeneous compute resources such as CPUs, GPUs, and hardware accelerators.
• Experience with high-throughput networking, storage, data logging, or data offload systems.
• Experience establishing performance budgets, service-level objectives, or automated regression detection.
• Experience with the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform or DriveOS ecosystem.
• Familiarity with Bazel and large-scale C++ codebases.

Work Arrangement

This role is hybrid from our Pittsburgh office and requires in-office days each week to support hands‑on system work and cross-functional collaboration.

Office location: Pittsburgh

Contract type: Full-time

Updated: 5 days ago

Salary Range

$149,000—$198,500 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity.

Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.

Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.

Our journey is always people first.

We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.

Higher purpose, greater impact.

We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.

Scale up, not starting up.

Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.

Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit www.Motional.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.

Working at Motional

Motional is powered by a uniquely talented, highly experienced team with a diverse set of skills across engineering, robotics, machine-learning, and artificial intelligence.

Careers at Motional