Staff, Software Engineer - Motion Planning

Torc Robotics • Blacksburg, VA

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

Torc is hiring a Staff Motion Planning Engineer to lead technical development for the planning, prediction, and decision-making systems that determine how our autonomous trucks navigate the world safely, efficiently, and predictably. Our team operates at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, optimization, simulation, and safety, building the core autonomy capabilities that translate perception into action. This role is focused on motion planning, trajectory generation, and trajectory optimization for autonomous vehicles in unstructured environments. You will provide technical leadership across teams and platforms, driving architectural strategy, engineering excellence, and scalable system design. You will lead high-impact technical initiatives, influence long-term engineering direction, and contribute directly to the design, development, validation, and deployment of planning capabilities. This role operates at a multi-team level with broad organizational impact. You will work closely with engineers and leaders across autonomy, controls, simulation, safety, and validation to help deliver safe, robust, and reliable autonomy behaviors at scale.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field with: 10+ years of industry experience OR Master's degree with 7+ years of experience OR PhD with 5+ years of experience.
• Proven experience operating as a Staff, Principal, or multi-team technical leader within complex engineering organizations including experience leading large cross-functional technical initiatives across multiple engineering teams
• Deep expertise developing robotics, autonomous vehicle, ADAS, or other complex real-time software systems.
• Deep expertise in modern C++ development within Linux-based environments.
• Diverse experience developing motion planning, trajectory generation, trajectory optimization, behavior planning, or decision-making systems for robotics or autonomous systems.
• Strong understanding of vehicle dynamics, vehicle kinematics, trajectory feasibility, and planning system architecture.
• Strong foundation in linear algebra, numerical optimization, geometry, and robotics algorithms.
• Hands-on experience with analyzing metrics to optimize performance in a resource-constrained environment.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills with the ability to perform both real-time diagnostics and in-depth post-analysis.
• Mastery of software engineering fundamentals, system design principles, and scalable development practices.
• Experience with version control (Git), build systems, and package management.
• Understanding of test automation principles and proficiency with unit testing and test automation frameworks (pytest, Robot Framework, gtest, etc.)
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to debug complex system-level issues.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills within cross-functional engineering teams.
• Ability to work independently while contributing effectively within a highly collaborative environment.
• U.S. Citizenship Requirement: This position requires access to information and systems that are restricted under U.S. law. Accordingly, only U.S. citizens are eligible for this role.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI), Model Predictive Control (MPC), convex optimization, quadratic programming (QP), nonlinear optimization, or other optimization-based planning techniques for autonomous vehicles.
• Experience applying machine learning techniques such as imitation learning, reinforcement learning, or hybrid planning architectures.
• Experience integrating machine learning models into real-time or production systems.
• Experience working with simulation platforms and large-scale autonomy validation environments.
• Experience with robotics frameworks such as ROS/ROS2, Autoware, Apollo, or similar autonomy platforms.
• Exposure to CUDA, GPU acceleration, TensorRT, or high-performance compute environments.
• Experience supporting on-vehicle testing, debugging, and deployment activities.
• Passion for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and solving complex real-world engineering challenges.
• Contributions to open-source projects related to embedded Linux, robotics, or deployment automation.

Responsibilities

• Defining and maintaining the architectural vision across teams, platforms, and services to ensure scalability, reliability, maintainability, long-term technical alignment, and consistency of software design patterns
• Supporting Engineering Managers and Senior ICs in resolving complex technical design, architecture, and implementation challenges across multiple domains while balancing feasibility against business objectives
• Establishing and promoting engineering best practices for code quality, automated testing, performance optimization, monitoring, security, and operational excellence
• Conducting architecture reviews, technical deep dives, design sessions, and technical assessments to guide engineering decisions and solution direction
• Mentoring and coaching senior and mid-level engineers while helping grow future Staff and Principal engineers through technical guidance and leadership development
• Fostering a culture of engineering excellence, documentation, collaboration, innovation, and knowledge sharing across the organization
• Translating complex technical concepts, trade-offs, and architectural decisions into clear recommendations for leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
• Leading major technical initiatives such as platform modernization, observability enhancements, performance optimization, scalability improvements, and reliability engineering efforts
• Design, develop, and optimize motion planning algorithms including trajectory generation, trajectory selection, behavior planning, and optimization-based planning approaches for autonomous trucks.
• Develop planning solutions leveraging techniques such as graph search, sampling-based planning, optimization-based planning, spline/B-spline trajectories, convex optimization, and Frenet-frame approaches.
• Incorporate vehicle kinematic and dynamic constraints into planning systems to ensure safe, feasible, and comfortable vehicle behavior.
• Develop production-quality software using modern C++ within a Linux environment while adhering to quality, safety, testing, and deployment best practices.
• Collaborate closely with Safety, Controls, Perception, Validation, and Simulation teams to develop safe and reliable autonomous driving behaviors.
• Develop and execute validation strategies across Software-in-the-Loop (SiL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL), and Vehicle-in-the-Loop (ViL) environments.
• Investigate and debug vehicle behavior by reproducing issues in simulation, analyzing system performance, and implementing software improvements.
• Support vehicle integration, deployment activities, and post-deployment investigations to ensure reliable autonomy performance.
• Perform on-vehicle troubleshooting using real-time diagnostic tools and in-depth log analysis.

Benefits

• A competitive compensation package that includes a bonus component and stock options
• 100% paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for full-time employees
• 401K plan with a 6% employer match
• Flexibility in schedule and generous paid vacation (available immediately after start date)
• Company-wide holiday office closures
• AD+D and Life Insurance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior