Senior/Staff Software Engineer (Motion Planning)

Join PlusAI, a leading company in the autonomous driving industry. As a Senior/Staff Software Engineer on the Motion Planning team, you will be responsible for developing and implementing planning technologies that enable our trucks to handle complex driving scenarios safely and efficiently. You will work closely with cross-functional teams and have the opportunity to bring state-of-the-art decision-making and optimization techniques into a production-grade, safety-critical system. Enjoy unlimited PTO, flexible working arrangements, health benefits, equity options, and professional development opportunities.

• Research, develop, and implement planning technologies that enable trucks to handle complex driving scenarios safely and human-like.
• Design and implement algorithms for decision-making and trajectory generation, ensuring safety, comfort, and reliability across various driving conditions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with teams such as Perception, Prediction, Controls, and Safety to integrate and refine planning algorithms into the production stack.

• MS with 1-2 years of relevant experience, or PhD, in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field
• Robotics expertise in one or more of: path planning, motion planning, trajectory generation, behavior planning, optimal control
• Strong oral and written communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across teams and derive solutions from cross-functional input
• Strong math (geometry, analysis, probability) and physics (kinematics, dynamics) fundamentals
• Experience designing, implementing, and refining planning algorithms on a real-world robotic or vehicle platform
• Strong production software development skills in C++; Python experience a plus
• PhD + 1-2 years or MS + 3-4 years of relevant experience
• Bonus: exposure to machine learning techniques such as deep learning, imitation learning, transformer-based models, or diffusion-based models, particularly as applied to decision-making or scenario generation
• Prior experience working on safety-critical systems
• Familiarity with safety frameworks for autonomy (e.g., RSS, collision avoidance/MRM logic)