Software Engineer - Planning (Reward Design)

Applied Intuition • Mountain View, CA

98d • $125,000 - $222,000

About The Position

Applied Intuition is the vehicle intelligence company that accelerates the global adoption of safe, AI-driven machines. Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition delivers the toolchain, Vehicle OS, and autonomy stacks to help customers build intelligent vehicles and shorten time to market. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers and major programs across the Department of Defense trust Applied Intuition's solutions to deliver vehicle intelligence. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining, and agriculture industries and is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Diego, CA, Ft. Walton Beach, FL, Ann Arbor, MI, London, Stuttgart, Munich, Stockholm, Seoul, and Tokyo. We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. (Note: For EpiSci job openings, fully remote work will be considered by exception.)

Requirements

• 3-5 years of professional experience in autonomous vehicle motion planning, robotics, or a related field
• Strong programming skills in C++ and/or Python
• Solid understanding of core motion planning concepts, including state-space search, sampling-based methods, and trajectory optimization
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex system behavior and distill it into clear, quantitative metrics
• Enthusiasm about applying their skills to solve challenging problems in a fast-paced environment

Nice To Haves

• Prior exposure to machine learning concepts, particularly reinforcement learning
• Experience with robotics middleware (e.g., ROS)
• Experience with a simulation environment

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and validate novel reward and cost functions that guide the autonomous vehicle's behavior, balancing safety, comfort, and efficiency
• Work with our behavior team to integrate and optimize cost functions, ensuring optimal trajectory generation and comfortable, safe driving
• Partner with our Reinforcement Learning (RL) research team to translate high-level behavioral goals into effective RL reward signals for training our learning-based agents
• Analyze planning system performance against real-world and simulated data to iteratively refine and improve cost and reward mechanisms
• Take ownership of the full life cycle of reward engineering solutions, from concept and prototyping to deployment and maintenance

Benefits

• Base salary, equity, and benefits
• Comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage
• 401k retirement benefits with employer match
• Learning and wellness stipends
• Paid time off

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees