Staff Motion Planning Engineer

Fruition Group US; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Fruition Group US is partnering with a fast-growing autonomous vehicle company to hire a Motion Planning Engineer. You will shape the planning stack architecture and drive safe, efficient real-time driving decisions in complex environments.

You’ll ship planning software onto real vehicles, mentor engineers, and collaborate with perception, controls, and simulation teams to address the hardest planning challenges at scale.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in motion planning, trajectory optimization, or a closely related robotics discipline, with a track record of technical leadership.
• Production experience shipping planning software onto real autonomous or robotic systems at scale, not just research or simulation.
• Deep expertise in planning algorithms (search-based, sampling-based, optimization-based) and selecting the right approach.

Responsibilities

• Help set technical direction and architecture for the motion planning stack, balancing near-term shipping needs against long-term scalability.
• Design and guide the implementation of planning algorithms that generate safe, efficient, and comfortable trajectories in complex, dynamic environments.
• Lead the design of behavior planning and decision-making logic for navigating traffic, intersections, and interactions with other road users.
• Partner with perception and prediction teams to ensure planning decisions reflect real-time environment understanding.
• Drive the evolution of simulation tools and test frameworks used to validate planning behavior before vehicles.
• Analyze on-vehicle data and logs to identify and resolve the hardest planning failures.
• Mentor other engineers on the planning team and raise the technical bar across the group.
• Represent the planning team in cross-functional architecture discussions with controls, systems, and vehicle platform teams.

Skills

C++

Python

Robotics algorithms

Leadership

Mentoring

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Robotics/CS/ME

Tools

ROS/ROS2

Job description

$200,000 - $270,000 base + equity

About the Role:

Fruition Group is partnering with a fast-growing autonomous vehicle company to find their next Motion Planning Engineer. Our client is building the software stack that lets autonomous vehicles navigate real-world environments safely and confidently, and they need a senior technical leader to help set the direction for the planning layer that turns perception and prediction into safe, comfortable, real-time driving decisions.

This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who has shipped motion planning software onto real vehicles and has strong opinions, backed by experience, about how a planning stack should be architected to scale. You'll help set technical direction across the planning team, work across perception, controls, and simulation, and be a go-to voice on the hardest planning problems in the stack.

What You’ll Do:

• Help set technical direction and architecture for the motion planning stack, balancing near-term shipping needs against long-term scalability.
• Design and guide the implementation of planning algorithms that generate safe, efficient, and comfortable trajectories in complex, dynamic environments.
• Lead the design of behavior planning and decision‑making logic for navigating traffic, intersections, and interactions with other road users.
• Partner closely with perception and prediction teams to ensure planning decisions are grounded in accurate, real‑time understanding of the environment.
• Drive the evolution of simulation tools and test frameworks used to validate planning behavior before it reaches a vehicle.
• Dig into on‑vehicle data and real‑world driving logs to identify and resolve the hardest planning failures.
• Mentor other engineers on the planning team and raise the technical bar across the group.
• Represent the planning team in cross‑functional architecture discussions with controls, systems, and vehicle platform teams.

Requirements:

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in motion planning, trajectory optimization, or a closely related robotics discipline, with a track record of technical leadership.
• Production experience shipping planning software onto real autonomous or robotic systems at scale, not just research or simulation.
• Deep expertise in algorithms relevant to planning - search-based, sampling-based, and/or optimization-based methods - and the judgment to know which fits a given problem.
• Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python in a real‑time or performance-sensitive context.
• Extensive experience with ROS/ROS2 or comparable robotics middleware.
• A track record of driving architectural decisions and influencing technical direction beyond your own code.
• Comfortable working with large‑scale simulation and log‑based testing infrastructure.
• Excellent communication skills and experience mentoring other engineers.