Sr. Staff Engineer

Lucid Motors; Newark (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Equity program

Discretionary annual cash incentive

Job summary

Lucid Motors in Newark, California, is seeking a senior robotics software engineer to advance trajectory optimization for low-speed autonomous driving. You will develop iLQR- and MPC-based approaches, refine planning constraints, and scale the planning stack for multiple vehicle platforms.

The role demands leadership, deep expertise in C/C++, and hands-on experience with embedded platforms such as NVIDIA Xavier/Orin. Onsite work is required five days per week.

Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of software development experience in autonomous driving, ADAS, or robotics.
• Strong C/C++ programming skills and understanding of software engineering design principles.
• Experience delivering ADAS features through full lifecycle including SIL/HIL validation and in-vehicle deployment.
• Hands-on experience on embedded platforms such as NVIDIA Xavier/Orin and Infineon Aurix.
• Leadership experience.
• Preferred: ML-based planning, GPU or parallel computing.

Responsibilities

• Develop trajectory optimization algorithms, including iLQR- and MPC-based approaches, for low-speed autonomous driving scenarios.
• Design constraint-aware optimization methods and improve local planners to generate control-friendly trajectories.
• Refactor and scale planning-stack architecture for maintainability, extensibility, and operation across scenarios and vehicle platforms.
• Optimize CPU usage and investigate parallel and GPU acceleration opportunities.
• Debug curvature discontinuities, velocity and trajectory mismatches, and edge-case steering behavior using simulation, vehicle logs, multi-scenario testing, and benchmarking.
• Prototype and evaluate learned models, barrier functions, and ML-based planning approaches for production viability.
• Drive technical discussions, document algorithm insights, support knowledge transfer, and track work in Jira.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Large-scale data handling

Real-time systems

Leadership experience

Education

M.S. or Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, Electrical Engineering, or related field

Tools

NVIDIA Xavier/Orin

Infineon Aurix

Job description

• Develop trajectory optimization algorithms, including iLQR- and MPC-based approaches, for low-speed autonomous driving scenarios.
• Design constraint-aware optimization methods and improve local planners to generate control-friendly trajectories.
• Refactor and scale planning-stack architecture for maintainability, extensibility, and operation across scenarios and vehicle platforms.
• Optimize CPU usage and investigate parallel and GPU acceleration opportunities.
• Debug curvature discontinuities, velocity and trajectory mismatches, and edge-case steering behavior using simulation, vehicle logs, multi-scenario testing, and benchmarking.
• Prototype and evaluate learned models, barrier functions, and ML-based planning approaches for production viability.
• Drive technical discussions, document algorithm insights, support knowledge transfer, and track work in Jira.

Responsibilities

• Develop trajectory optimization algorithms, including iLQR- and MPC-based approaches, for low-speed autonomous driving scenarios.
• Design constraint-aware optimization methods and improve local planners to generate control-friendly trajectories.
• Refactor and scale planning-stack architecture for maintainability, extensibility, and operation across scenarios and vehicle platforms.
• Optimize CPU usage and investigate parallel and GPU acceleration opportunities.
• Debug curvature discontinuities, velocity and trajectory mismatches, and edge-case steering behavior using simulation, vehicle logs, multi-scenario testing, and benchmarking.
• Prototype and evaluate learned models, barrier functions, and ML-based planning approaches for production viability.
• Drive technical discussions, document algorithm insights, support knowledge transfer, and track work in Jira.

Requirements

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of software development experience in autonomous driving, ADAS, or robotics, focused on large-scale data and real-time systems.
• Strong C/C++ programming skills and understanding of software engineering design principles and best practices.
• Experience delivering ADAS or autonomous-driving features through requirements analysis, architecture and design, implementation, unit testing, feature tuning, SIL/HIL validation, and in-vehicle deployment.
• Hands-on experience integrating software on embedded platforms such as NVIDIA Xavier/Orin and Infineon Aurix.
• Ability to build reliable production-grade systems, large-scale architectures, evaluation pipelines, and performance-optimized models.
• Leadership experience.
• Preferred qualifications include ML-based planning, GPU or parallel computing for planning, and production deployment in real vehicles.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance; life and disability coverage; paid time off; paid holidays; paid sick leave; and a 401(k) retirement plan.
• Eligible employees may participate in Lucid's equity program and/or discretionary annual cash incentive program.
• The position is based in Newark, California and requires onsite work five days per week.