Senior Robotics Engineer, AV Performance Diagnosis & Evaluation
About The Position
The Senior Robotics Engineer will join Motional’s Systems Readiness and Performance team, which connects software development with real-world deployment. The team drives system design, verifies and validates the autonomy stack, and defines, measures, and validates system performance targets. It works with autonomy, infrastructure, and operations stakeholders to build the safety case for commercial launch of driverless IONIQ 5 robotaxis in Las Vegas. This role investigates and diagnoses complex autonomous vehicle behaviors across on-road, resimulation, and synthetic simulation environments. The engineer owns ambiguous problem spaces end to end, using Python, custom Spaceship tooling, and data visualization platforms to perform root-cause analysis of emergent behaviors across the autonomy stack. The role turns technical debugging into clear summaries that support release narratives and executive insights. The position is hybrid and requires in-office days each week at the Boston or Las Vegas office. Travel is expected for one to two weeks each quarter, primarily to Las Vegas and also to other domestic testing sites as business needs require.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, such as Computer Science, Electrical, Systems, or Robotics, or equivalent work experience.
- At least 5 years of professional software or systems engineering experience working on safety-critical complex systems such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, medical devices, or aerospace.
- Thorough understanding of robotics systems, including sensors, actuators, and software autonomy stacks.
- Strong proficiency in Python for data analysis and scripting, with a strong understanding of modern software development principles.
- Experience building data visualizations using Python frameworks.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills for complex system performance evaluation.
- Ability to reason logically, remove bias, perform root-cause analysis using system logs, and maintain a strict commitment to data quality and rigorous testing.
- Proficiency with Git and standard version-control workflows.
- Comfort working in a fast-paced, agile CI/CD environment.
- Ability to work independently and effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.
- Excellent communication skills, including synthesizing complex technical findings into clear summaries for cross-functional teams and executive leadership.
- Ability to meet the described physical demands, including occasionally lifting and moving up to 50 pounds.
- Availability for expected travel of one to two weeks each quarter.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree.
- Experience with AV-specific diagnostic and visualization tools such as Planner Analyzer.
- Knowledge of statistical analysis and machine-learning techniques relevant to performance evaluation.
- Willingness to learn business intelligence tools such as Looker.
Responsibilities
- Investigate undesirable AV behaviors across simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and on-road operations, owning complex investigations from triage through resolution with little to no oversight.
- Debug behaviors across perception, prediction, localization, planning, controls, and vehicle systems, including interactions across subsystem boundaries.
- Analyze large datasets from system logs, telemetry, and software outputs using Python.
- Develop automated diagnostic workflows and internal tooling using Python and Spaceship to improve the speed and scale of investigations.
- Design and build interactive dashboards using Python frameworks and business intelligence tools such as Looker to measure, analyze, and report system performance.
- Generate and test technical hypotheses based on incomplete or ambiguous evidence, distinguishing symptoms from root causes.
- Identify recurring undesirable behaviors, regressions, and emerging system-level performance issues, and categorize them into meaningful failure modes.
- Synthesize technical findings into clear summaries, performance visualizations, executive-level reporting, release narratives, and cross-functional communications.
- Travel to testing sites for one to two weeks each quarter, mostly to Las Vegas and domestically as business needs require.
Benefits
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- 401(k) with company match
- Health savings accounts
- Life insurance
- Pet insurance
- The role may include a bonus or company equity; eligibility and details may vary.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
