Staff Software Engineer, Planning Infrastructure

Kodiak; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. is seeking a Senior or Staff Software Engineer to build infrastructure, tools, and systems that accelerate autonomy planning development.

You will create internal libraries, workflows, and evaluation systems in collaboration with Planning engineers to improve velocity, software quality, and test coverage. The role emphasizes strong C++ performance skills, experience with tooling and developer workflows, and the ability to deliver high-quality, maintainable code.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background with C++ performance optimization.
• Experience building tools, libraries, frameworks, or developer workflows.
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, high-performance code.
• Experience with metrics, logs, testing, debugging tools, simulation, or data-driven evaluation.
• Strong systems thinking to understand complex engineering workflows.
• Interest in autonomy, robotics, or planning systems.
• Strong collaboration to build tools that make other engineers more effective.

Responsibilities

• Build tools and infrastructure that accelerate Planning development.
• Improve testing, debugging, metrics, and evaluation workflows for the Planning team.
• Expose actionable insights from logs, simulation, and real-world autonomy data.
• Build infrastructure that supports safety case development and test coverage analysis.
• Improve internal libraries, developer workflows, and planning observability.
• Optimize performance, maintainability, and reliability of planning software.
• Partner closely with Planning engineers to identify bottlenecks and improve development velocity.
• Design reusable systems and abstractions used across the Planning team.
• Lead infrastructure projects with broad team-wide impact.

Skills

C++ performance optimization

Large-scale software systems

Tooling development

Metrics & observability

Collaboration

Autonomy/robotics interest

Tools

Git

Linux

Job description

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology. In 2024, Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.

We are looking for a Senior or Staff Software Engineer to build infrastructure, tools, and systems that help our Planning team develop, debug, evaluate, and deploy autonomy software faster and more safely.

In this role, you will build the internal tools, libraries, workflows, metrics, and evaluation systems that support behavior and motion planning development. You will work closely with Planning engineers to understand their workflows and create infrastructure that improves engineering velocity, software quality, system performance, and test coverage.

This is a great role for a strong generalist engineer who enjoys building systems that other engineers rely on every day.

What You’ll Do

• Build tools and infrastructure that accelerate Planning development.
• Improve testing, debugging, metrics, and evaluation workflows for the Planning team.
• Expose actionable insights from logs, simulation, and real-world autonomy data.
• Build infrastructure that supports safety case development and test coverage analysis.
• Improve internal libraries, developer workflows, and planning observability.
• Optimize performance, maintainability, and reliability of planning software.
• Partner closely with Planning engineers to identify bottlenecks and improve development velocity.
• Design reusable systems and abstractions used across the Planning team.
• Lead infrastructure projects with broad team-wide impact.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong software engineering background, experience with C++ performance optimization and large-scale software systems.
• Experience building tools, libraries, frameworks, infrastructure, or developer workflows.
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, high-performance code.
• Experience with metrics, logs, testing, debugging tools, simulation, or data-driven evaluation.
• Strong systems thinking and ability to understand complex engineering workflows.
• Interest in autonomy, robotics, or planning systems.
• Strong collaboration skills and a desire to build tools that make other engineers more effective.

The pay range listed below reflects the base salaryin our SF/Silicon Valley location, across several internal levels. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors including: work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level and performance during interview.

California Pay Range $240,000 — $265,000 USD

• Total compensation at Kodiak includes base pay, equity, bonus and a competitive benefits package

At Kodiak, we strive to build a diverse community working towards our common company goals in a safe and collaborative environment where harassment of any kind is strictly prohibited. Kodiak is committed to equal opportunity employment regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

In alignment with its business operations, Kodiak adheres to all relevant statutes, regulations, and administrative prerequisites. Accordingly, roles that carry more sensitive requirements may be limited to candidates that can satisfy additional scrutiny and eligibility for such positions may hinge on verification of a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status. Should the position require, and Kodiak determines that a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status necessitate an export license, bar the candidate from the position, or otherwise fall under national security-related restrictions, Kodiak will consider the candidate for alternative positions unaffected by such restrictions, under terms and conditions set forth at Kodiak’s sole discretion, or, as an alternative, opt not to proceed with the candidate’s application. If applicable, Kodiak may provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates.

We use a third-party AI tool (Endorsed) to assist in the initial screening of applications. As part of the evaluation process, we provide Endorsed with job requirements and candidate-submitted applications. Final hiring decisions are made by our human recruitment team, and no automated system makes the ultimate decision regarding hiring. Certain features of the platform may qualify it as an Automated Employment Decision Tool (AEDT) under applicable regulations. We began using Endorsed on January 1, 2026. You can review the independent bias audit report covering our use of Endorsed https://endorsed.com/local-law-144. By submitting your application, you acknowledge that your application may be processed by AI systems as part of the screening and selection process. If you have any questions or would like to request a separate review of your application, please contact [e-mail] with "Separate Review Request" in the email subject line.