Staff Motion Planning Engineer - Low-Speed Autonomy

Lucid Motors; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 179,000 - 263,000; Full time

Job summary

Lucid Motors is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to support the auto‑parking and low‑speed autonomy stack in Newark, CA. This on‑site role focuses on trajectory optimization, path smoothing, and local planning for features like Auto Park and Summon.

You will combine strong algorithmic foundations with production‑grade software, drive system optimization, and collaborate across teams to improve planning performance and scalability in real‑world driving conditions.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Robotics, Control, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 5–8+ years of software development experience in autonomous driving, ADAS, or robotics.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++ with solid understanding of software engineering design principles and best practices.
• Hands‑on experience with software integration on embedded platforms (e.g., NVIDIA Xavier/Orin, Infineon Aurix).
• Demonstrated ability to build reliable production‑grade systems, including large‑scale architectures, evaluation pipelines, and performance‑optimized models.
• Leadership experience.

Responsibilities

• Motion Planning & Trajectory Optimization: develop and enhance trajectory optimization algorithms for low-speed scenarios and improve local planners to generate control-friendly trajectories.
• System Architecture & Performance Optimization: refactor and scale planning stack architecture, optimize CPU usage, and explore parallel/GPU acceleration opportunities.
• Debugging, Validation, and Production Integration: investigate and resolve curvature discontinuities, velocity/trajectory mismatches, and edge-case steering behaviors; validate via simulation and logs.
• Research, Prototyping, and Innovation: evaluate new approaches including ML-driven planning; benchmark and improve planning viability for production.
• Cross‑Team Collaboration & Knowledge Transfer: drive technical discussions, maintain documentation, and track work via Jira.

Skills

C/C++

Embedded systems

Autonomous driving

Real-time systems

Leadership

Education

MS/PhD in Robotics or related field

Tools

NVIDIA Xavier/Orin

Infineon Aurix

Job description

Lucid Motors is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to support the auto‑parking and low‑speed autonomy stack in Newark, CA. This on‑site role focuses on trajectory optimization, path smoothing, and local planning for features like Auto Park and Summon.

You will combine strong algorithmic foundations with production‑grade software, drive system optimization, and collaborate across teams to improve planning performance and scalability in real‑world driving conditions.