Staff Engineer Team Lead, Release Engineering

Motional AD Inc.; Pittsburgh, Las Vegas (Allegheny County, NV); Hybrid; USD 172,000 - 229,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

401k with company match

Health savings account

Life insurance

Pet insurance

Job summary

Motional AD Inc. is seeking a Staff Engineer Team Lead for Release Engineering to grow and lead our Release team, focusing on software release and validation across our autonomous vehicle fleet.

You will own design, build, and deployment of infrastructure ensuring safe, reliable releases and collaboration with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate has 5+ years in release engineering or autonomous systems, strong C++/Python, and proven leadership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in autonomous driving or robotics, release engineering or simulation.
• Strong understanding of autonomy systems: Localization, Perception, Prediction, Planning, Control.
• Proven technical leadership and cross-functional team guidance.
• BS or MS in Engineering or equivalent knowledge and experience.
• Proficiency with C++ and Python; deep CI/CD experience.

Responsibilities

• Define and enforce release governance, branching strategies, and release lifecycles.
• Lead shift-left quality initiatives across pipeline stages to ensure quality upstream.
• Standardize release documentation and governance workflows across the org.
• Oversee release validation and gating to minimize branch breakages.
• Collaborate with Autonomy teams to integrate patches into release branches.

Skills

Release engineering

CI/CD pipelines

C++/Python

Cross-functional leadership

Autonomy systems

Problem solving

Collaboration

Data-driven decisions

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

Apache Airflow

Applied Intuition

AWS

Cloud Simulation

Job description

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.

Infrastructure

Staff Engineer Team Lead, Release Engineering

Mission Summary: Motional is at the forefront of the driverless revolution. We are seeking a Staff Engineer Team Lead to grow and lead our Release team, specializing in Software Release and Validation. In this critical role, you will be the technical and team leader responsible for designing, building, and deploying the infrastructure that ensures safe and reliable software releases across our autonomous vehicle fleet. You will play a vital part in realizing product improvements by managing the complex intersection of software builds, triage, and large-scale simulation-based validation.

The ideal candidate has a deep technical background in both release engineering and autonomous vehicle technologies, combined with a proven track record of leading and mentoring engineering teams. You should be able to work independently, taking ownership of large, vaguely defined problems while working cross-functionally across the entire organization.

Strategic Impact:

• Release Strategy & Architecture: Drive the organizational strategy for release management. Evaluate and optimize branching paradigms (e.g., Trunk-Based vs. Gitflow) to balance developer velocity with release stability.
• Divergence Resolution: Audit and resolve discrepancies between mainline and active release branches. Enforce a "Mainline First" policy to reduce technical debt and manual cherry-picking.
• Continuous Improvement: Develop and iterate on robust, gated testing to ensure main-branch stability, preventing the need for complex, fragmented branching models.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Release Governance & Strategic Architecture: Define, enforce code and execute promotion policies, branching strategies (e.g., Trunk-Based vs. Gitflow), and release lifecycles to ensure release isolation and stability.
• Shift-Left Quality Leadership: Drive shift-left quality initiatives by specifying and generating automated tests across all pipeline stages, ensuring quality is integrated throughout the release lifecycle rather than retrofitted.
• Release Process Standardization: Audit, unify, and standardize release documentation and governance workflows across the organization to eliminate tribal knowledge and empower the broader engineering organization.
• Release Validation & Gating: Oversee the evolution and content in all release pipelines stages to minimize branch breakages and increase release quality. Improve visibility into release metrics, ensuring stakeholders and leadership have the necessary data for rapid, informed decision-making.
• Cross-Functional Integration: Collaborate with Autonomy teams to seamlessly and safely integrate necessary fast-forward patches into release branches. Proactively manage and mitigate technical risks associated with software deployment and build compatibility.

What We're Looking For:

• Experience: 5+ years of professional experience in the autonomous driving or robotics industry, specifically within release engineering or simulation.
• Autonomy Expertise: Strong understanding of autonomy systems, including Localization, Perception, Prediction, Planning, Control, and Autonomy Platforms.
• Technical Leadership: Experience working on and leading large-scale cross-functional projects and managing engineering teams.
• Engineering Foundation: BS or MS in Engineering or equivalent knowledge and work experience.
• Programming Proficiency: Proficiency with C++/Python and advanced experience with CI/CD pipelines.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Demonstrated ability to think logically, remove bias from problem evaluation, and data mine for insights on deficiencies and overlooked optimizations.
• Collaboration: Strong teamwork, communication, presentation and writing skills for working with developers, program managers, and leadership.
• Strategic Problem Solving: Proven ability to navigate complex engineering debates (e.g., Trunk-Based vs. Gitflow), provide data-driven recommendations, and lead architectural shifts.

Bonus Points (Not Required):

• Experience with Cloud Simulation scaling and cost analysis.
• Experience with Apache Airflow.
• Experience with Applied Intuition simulation tooling.
• Experience with scaled AWS applications and environments.

This role is hybrid from our Pittsburgh or Las Vegas office. It requires in-office days each week.

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. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process.

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.

Salary Range

$172,000 — $229,000 USD

Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles