Staff Autonomy & Localization Engineer

Kodiak; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation with equity

Annual bonuses

Mountain View office

Catered lunch & perks

Wellbeing programs

Job summary

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. in Mountain View, CA is seeking a Staff Autonomy Software Engineer focused on Calibration, Localization and Mapping (CLAM).

You will set the technical direction for onboard navigation and pose estimation, and lead sensor fusion across IMU, camera and lidar systems. You will mentor engineers, design robust state estimation solutions, and define metric-driven evaluation methodologies to ensure high-reliability performance in a heterogeneous sensing suite.

Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in navigation, localization, or odometry.
• Expert in C++ with strong problem-solving and software engineering skills.
• Experience transforming raw sensor data (GNSS, IMU, wheel speed) into 6-DOF pose using Kalman Filtering or factor graphs.
• Experience with computer vision or lidar/point-cloud odometry.
• Experience mentoring engineers and elevating technical practices.

Responsibilities

• Set technical strategy and architecture for onboard navigation and pose estimation.
• Lead design of sensor fusion across IMU, camera, and lidar.
• Drive visual and lidar odometry algorithms and assess build-vs-adopt tradeoffs.
• Define navigation metrics and evaluation methodologies used across the org.
• Serve as escalation point for complex localization problems.
• Evaluate sensor performance and optimize sensor selection.
• Verify correct sensor calibrations and uncertainty characterizations.

Skills

C++ expert

State estimation

Sensor fusion

Kalman filtering

Computer vision

Mentoring

Team collaboration

Software architecture

Education

BS/MS/ PhD in navigation/localization/odometry

Job description

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. in Mountain View, CA is seeking a Staff Autonomy Software Engineer focused on Calibration, Localization and Mapping (CLAM).

You will set the technical direction for onboard navigation and pose estimation, and lead sensor fusion across IMU, camera and lidar systems. You will mentor engineers, design robust state estimation solutions, and define metric-driven evaluation methodologies to ensure high-reliability performance in a heterogeneous sensing suite.