Director, Onboard Core Software

Motional•Boston, MA

2d•$240,000 - $330,000

About The Position

Motional is seeking a Director of Onboard Core Software to lead the teams responsible for the software foundation of its autonomous vehicles, including embedded firmware, operating systems, runtimes, and middleware across the vehicle’s computing platforms. The Director owns the onboard software infrastructure end to end and establishes its strategic vision and execution. The role establishes a unified roadmap, intake process, and escalation path for the onboard stack, and serves as the primary engineering counterpart to Vehicle Platform Engineering, Autonomy, and Safety for software running on vehicle compute platforms. The Director maintains the health of the current-generation platform in production while building the next-generation platform program. The role also owns cross-cutting system behaviors—including startup sequencing, storage lifecycle, compute, ECU bring-up, and cross-layer latency—to support safe, reliable platform performance and a positive customer experience. The Director leads and develops engineering managers and technical leaders, building an organization able to operate autonomously. This includes responsibility for hiring, leveling, performance, and career development. The role sets release expectations and quality metrics for onboard software, acts as the main contact for stakeholder and partner teams, resolves organizational boundaries, and manages intake, prioritization, and escalations. Motional encourages a hybrid schedule with in-office time in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas, or the role may be fully remote. The listed base salary range is $240,000–$330,000 USD; additional compensation may include a bonus or company equity. Benefits may include medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) with company match, health savings accounts, life insurance, and pet insurance.

Requirements

BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent knowledge and work experience.
12 or more years of software engineering experience.
5 or more years leading organizations of 40 or more engineers as a manager of managers.
Leadership experience in a field where software runs on physical hardware, such as automotive, robotics, aerospace, or consumer devices.
Hands-on experience building, or leading teams that built, embedded firmware, Linux kernel or BSP software, real-time middleware, or high-performance runtimes.
Ability to discuss boot sequencing, IPC latency, or resource scheduling with Principal Engineers.
Experience running software in production on a fleet or in the field, including maintaining a current platform while bringing up the next one.
Experience hiring, developing, and retaining talent as an organization grows.
Experience owning a large area spanning many teams, building trust with peer organizations, resolving boundaries, and making decisions others follow.
Clear written and verbal communication, including explaining technical tradeoffs to executives, peers, and engineers across teams.
Experience building inclusive teams and making room for people with different working styles, ideas, and backgrounds.
Ability to establish and uphold high standards for engineering quality.

Nice To Haves

Experience with automotive functional safety, including ISO 26262, safety MCUs, safety monitors, or diagnostics, or close collaboration with a safety organization on requirements and designs for safety-critical or regulated environments.
Experience with high-performance, high-bandwidth, low-latency systems moving large amounts of data across numerous subsystems with tight timing requirements.
Familiarity with physical AI ecosystems, including how machine learning models run on embedded compute, depend on sensors and onboard runtime, and use on-road and simulation data for training and evaluation.
Experience in the autonomous vehicle or robotaxi industry.

Responsibilities

Own the onboard software stack from embedded firmware through middleware, including software for SoCs, safety MCUs, and GPU compute; operating systems, drivers, and physical-world interfaces; task runtime and compute resource management; system health monitoring; and safety and diagnostics software.
Set the strategic vision and execution for the onboard software foundation of Motional’s autonomous vehicles.
Establish a single roadmap, intake process, and escalation path for the onboard stack.
Serve as the primary engineering counterpart to Vehicle Platform Engineering, Autonomy, and Safety for software running on vehicle compute platforms.
Maintain the current-generation platform’s health in production while building the next-generation platform program.
Own cross-cutting system behaviors such as startup sequencing, storage lifecycle, compute, ECU bring-up, and cross-layer latency.
Lead and develop engineering managers and technical leaders; oversee hiring, leveling, performance, and career growth.
Build leaders who can run their teams autonomously.
Act as the main contact for stakeholder and partner teams; resolve organizational boundaries, run intake and prioritization, and handle escalations when onboard software is on the critical path.
Define release criteria for onboard software and quality metrics to ensure delivery of a safe and reliable product.
Set and maintain high standards for engineering quality.