Software Engineer - Motion Planning (Fallback Stack)
About The Position
As a Motion Planning Engineer on the Fallback Stack team, you will design and ship deterministic, safety-critical planning systems that ensure autonomous vehicles behave safely when autonomy degrades or operates under uncertainty. This role emphasizes classical motion planning, predictable behavior, and large-scale evaluation, rather than deep learning–driven planning. In addition to your engineering contributions, by working in our dynamic and customer-focused team culture, you will contribute to and learn from best practices in the nascent autonomy industry. We move fast and we focus on excellence, for our products and for our business. If you are hands-on and looking for a place to have a multiplying effect on making autonomous systems a reality, Applied is the place for you!
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in motion planning for autonomous vehicles or robotics
- Strong foundation in robotic motion planning algorithms and trajectory generation (optimization-, search-, or rule-based)
- Experience building deterministic, safety-critical planning systems
- A data-driven mindset for large-scale evaluation, debugging, and tuning of planning behavior
- Proficiency in C++ and experience working in real-time systems
- Strong systems thinking and cross-functional collaboration skills
Nice To Haves
- Experience designing minimal-risk maneuvers (MRM) or emergency handling behaviors
- Familiarity with AV safety concepts, ODD constraints, or safety-case-driven development
- Experience using ML techniques for parameter tuning, calibration, or offline optimization
- Experience working with degraded sensors, uncertainty, or human-in-the-loop systems
- Background in simulation frameworks or large-scale log analysis
Responsibilities
- Design and implement classical or ML motion planners for fallback and minimal-risk maneuvers
- Build planners that operate reliably under degraded perception, partial observability, and system faults
- Define and execute safe, deterministic vehicle motions such as controlled slow-downs, pull-overs, and safe stops
- Use large-scale simulation and real-world data to evaluate planner behavior and guide parameter tuning
- Develop metrics, analysis tools, and dashboards to understand planner performance at scale
- Collaborate closely with behavior prediction, perception, controls, safety, and remote assistance teams
- Contribute to a reusable fallback platform used across trucking and other autonomy programs
Benefits
- equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units
- comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage
- 401k retirement benefits with employer match
- learning and wellness stipends
- paid time off
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
No Education Listed
