Software Engineer - Evaluation

Pony.ai; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental &amp

Retirement Plan

Life Insurance

Paid Time Off

Family Leave

Disability Insurance

Free Food & Snacks

Job summary

Pony.ai is hiring for an advanced engineering role in California. You will design AI decision-making algorithms, build scalable data pipelines, and develop backend services for real-time processing. The position emphasizes reliable production systems, observability, and robust LLM workflows.

A strong CS background and experience with large-scale systems are essential. Base salary ranges from $120,000 to $200,000 annually, with potential bonuses and equity.

Qualifications

• BS/MS or PhD in Computer Science or related field.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++, Python.
• Solid foundations in mathematics and theory.
• Experience with large-scale systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement AI decision-making algorithms and evaluation metrics.
• Build scalable data pipelines for large-scale data ingestion and evaluation.
• Create system-level metrics, tests, and simulation environments.
• Develop high-performance backend services and distributed architectures.
• Implement monitoring, observability, and automated alerting for reliability.
• Improve LLM workflows, steering reasoning and reducing hallucinations.

Skills

C/C++

Python

Software design

Mathematics fundamentals

Large-scale systems

CS degree (BS/MS/PhD)

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Computer Science or related field

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.

Responsibility

• Design and implement algorithms and evaluation metrics to drive core AI decision-making
• Build scalable data pipelines and toolchains for large-scale data ingestion, batch processing, and evaluation
• Design system-level evaluation metrics, testing frameworks, and simulation environments across business components
• Design and implement high-performance backend services and distributed architectures , capable of handling large-scale real-time event processing
• 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

Requirements

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

Compensation And Benefits

Base Salary Range: $120,000 - $200,000 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