Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning

Kodiak•Mountain View, CA

About The Position

Kodiak AI is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to build and improve behavior planning and motion planning systems for autonomous driving. The role owns planning features end to end, from design and implementation through validation, deployment, and analysis. The engineer will work on real-world autonomy behavior, helping the system make safe, comfortable, and effective decisions in complex driving scenarios. It is suited to someone with strong planning experience who enjoys building production-quality autonomy software and collaborating across the autonomy stack.

Requirements

Leadership experience, ideally managing direct reports, and willingness to contribute hands-on and set an example.
Experience in behavior planning, motion planning, decision-making, robotics, autonomous vehicles, or related areas.
Strong software engineering skills, preferably in C++.
Experience building autonomy software in industrial, production, or near-production environments.
Ability to debug complex robotics or autonomy behavior using logs, metrics, and simulation.
Strong system-level judgment around safety, comfort, and deployment readiness.
Strong collaboration and communication skills.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and improve motion planning features.
Own planning projects from problem definition through deployment.
Debug autonomy behavior using logs, simulation, metrics, and real-world data.
Improve how the autonomy system balances safety, comfort, progress, and operational constraints.
Collaborate with teams across Prediction, Controls, Perception, ML, Simulation, Systems, and Safety.
Define success metrics and validation plans for planning features.
Write production-quality C++ software.
Participate in technical design reviews, code reviews, and architecture discussions.
Lead and mentor junior and senior engineers.

Benefits

Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses.
Medical, dental, and vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife, including a medical plan with infertility benefits.
MetLife Legal Services, Identity & Fraud Protection, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Accident Insurance, and Critical Illness Insurance.
Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies.
Dog-friendly office, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging.
Long-term disability, short-term disability, and life insurance.
Wellbeing benefits including Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, and Rula mental health navigation.
Fidelity 401(k).
Commuter benefits, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and HSA.
Incentive programs, including referral bonuses and patent bonuses.