Staff Engineer Team Lead — Release & Validation for AVs

Motional; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); Hybrid; USD 172,000 - 229,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401k with company match

Life insurance

Pet insurance

Health savings accounts

Job summary

Motional is a driverless technology company shaping the future of autonomous mobility. We are seeking a Staff Engineer Team Lead to grow and lead our Release team, focusing on software release and validation for our autonomous vehicle fleet.

You will design, build, and deploy infrastructure enabling safe, reliable releases across our platforms. The role combines technical leadership with cross-functional collaboration, driving shift-left quality, governance, and scalable release processes in a

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in autonomous driving or robotics, release engineering or simulation.
• Strong understanding of autonomy systems (Localization, Perception, Prediction, Planning, Control).
• Technical leadership with large-scale cross-functional projects.
• BS or MS in Engineering or equivalent knowledge and work experience.
• Proficiency with C++/Python and CI/CD pipelines.
• Problem-solving, data-driven decision making.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills.
• Ability to navigate architectural shifts (Trunk-Based vs Gitflow).

Responsibilities

• Define and enforce release policies, branching strategies, release lifecycles.
• Drive shift-left quality by automated tests across pipeline stages.
• Audit, unify, and standardize release documentation and governance workflows.
• Oversee release pipelines content to minimize branch breakages and improve quality.
• Collaborate with Autonomy teams to integrate patches into release branches and manage risks.

Skills

C++/Python

CI/CD pipelines

Engineering leadership

Release engineering

Autonomy systems

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

BS or MS in Engineering

Job description

Motional is a driverless technology company shaping the future of autonomous mobility. We are seeking a Staff Engineer Team Lead to grow and lead our Release team, focusing on software release and validation for our autonomous vehicle fleet.

You will design, build, and deploy infrastructure enabling safe, reliable releases across our platforms. The role combines technical leadership with cross-functional collaboration, driving shift-left quality, governance, and scalable release processes in a