Systems Engineer - Behavior Verification

Waabi

2d

About The Position

Waabi is seeking a rigorous and decisive Systems Engineer for its Behavior Verification team. The team determines whether a driver’s on-road behavior is suitable for release and how that assessment can be further substantiated. This role builds the evidence used to evaluate autonomy software and directly informs whether it is promoted.

The engineer defines scenario and test-set content for measuring software releases and supporting the development of new capabilities and features. They establish validity checks to keep test sets trustworthy and decide which test sets may enter the release pipeline. The role also maintains the quality of underlying scenarios, taggers, graders, and taxonomy; translates behavior requirements into testable criteria; investigates behavior deficiencies and test escapes; and distinguishes genuine behavior failures from simulation artifacts.

The position works across motion planning, simulation, evaluation, operations, safety methodology, and platform teams, while aligning verification phases and cadence with organizational needs. Waabi is a technology startup with offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh. The posting lists US and Canada salary ranges and notes that additional compensation may include discretionary equity awards and an annual performance bonus.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a relevant engineering or related field, such as Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Advanced Controls, or Aerospace.
• Experience verifying safety-critical systems, ideally in autonomous vehicles.
• Demonstrated experience designing test cases from requirements and assessing test-set coverage and gaps.
• Applied statistics knowledge, including sample size, confidence, and interpreting what results do and do not support.
• Proficiency in Python and ability to navigate a large codebase.
• Familiarity with autonomous-vehicle requirements, behaviors, and design methodologies.
• Strong ability to structure, document, and prioritize numerous test sets and test strategies.
• Ability to work diplomatically across cross-functional teams that may disagree.
• Commitment to accountability for oneself and others.

Nice To Haves

• Trucking or heavy-vehicle exposure.
• Machine learning experience, particularly model evaluation and false-positive/false-negative trade-offs.
• Exposure to regulatory frameworks such as NHTSA, ISO 26262, and SOTIF.
• Familiarity with tools for extracting coverage and exposure from large driving-log sets.
• Comfort working in a newly formed team where processes must be built rather than followed.

Responsibilities

• Design and document scenario and test sets, ranging from minimum to comprehensive, to establish on-road behavior performance.
• Define and run scenario validity checks, and approve or refuse test sets before they are used to judge a release.
• Maintain continuous quality feedback for test-set artifacts, including scenarios, taggers, graders, and the taxonomy behind them.
• Translate behavior requirements into testable criteria, working with Behavior Requirements on targets and acceptance criteria for sign-off.
• Investigate behavior deficiencies, identify further instances, establish exposure, and return findings to the pipeline as test escapes.
• Distinguish genuine behavior failures from simulation artifacts and raise simulation-fidelity gaps with the relevant teams.
• Coordinate across motion planning, simulation, evaluation, operations, safety methodology, and platform teams, managing the interfaces between them.
• Align verification phases and cadence with organizational needs, including daily releases and significant increases in exposure.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and equity awards.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage for full-time employees.
• Unlimited vacation.
• Flexible hours and work-from-home support.
• Daily drinks, snacks, and catered meals when in the office.
• Regular team-building activities and social events, on-site, off-site, and virtually.
• Discretionary equity incentive awards and discretionary annual performance bonus.

What This Job Offers

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