Principal Engineer Team Lead - Trajectory Planning Lead

1 hour, 41 minutes ago
Full-time
Lead
IoT and Embedded Systems
Motional

Motional

Motional is a leading company in driverless technology and autonomous vehicles, leveraging decades of industry expertise to develop and deploy safe and reliable autonomous vehicles. With a powerful DNA combining Aptiv's automotive technology and Hyunda...

Automotive
1K-5K
Founded 2020
$20M raised

Description

  • Lead and scale the trajectory planning team, defining its technical vision, execution strategy, and long-term role within the Motion organization.
  • Drive commercial launch readiness by improving on-road behavior across safety, comfort, and assertiveness through feature expansion and performance improvements.
  • Apply metrics-driven methods to measure and improve on-road performance using training and evaluation pipelines.
  • Manage computational efficiency and real-time performance of trajectory generation algorithms to meet latency budgets.
  • Lead rapid triage and root-cause analysis of critical fleet incidents and translate edge cases into algorithmic refinements and validation sets.
  • Oversee complex multi-team initiatives from design through deployment with rigorous testing and validation standards.
  • Provide technical leadership on architectural direction, strategic investments, tactical execution, and technical debt reduction.
  • Conduct rigorous design and code reviews while mentoring and growing the engineering team.
  • Define and negotiate quarterly and annual technical roadmaps aligned with company autonomy milestones and execution plans.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Planning, Perception, Prediction, Localization, ML Products, Systems Engineering, and project managers.

Requirements

  • 2+ years of experience managing high-performing development teams.
  • Experience leading production-quality algorithm delivery in autonomous vehicles, robotics, aerospace, or a similar high-stakes environment.
  • Ability to define and defend a technical roadmap that balances long-term architecture with immediate launch needs.
  • Deep theoretical and practical expertise in numerical optimization and optimal control.
  • Strong proficiency in Model Predictive Control, nonlinear programming, and convex optimization for real-time trajectory generation.
  • Significant experience solving motion planning problems under uncertainty, including interaction-aware planning with dynamic agents and complex constraints.
  • Machine learning-based approaches are a significant plus.
  • Strong intuition for the full robotics stack, including the impact of Perception, Prediction, Control, and Actuation on safety and feasibility.
  • Expertise in modern C++ development in Linux, with high-performance, real-time, safety-critical software experience.
  • Fluency in Python for prototyping, data analysis, and visualization; experience with AI-augmented development workflows and SQL or big-data frameworks is strongly preferred or a plus.
  • Exceptional communication skills for translating complex mathematical concepts for cross-functional and executive stakeholders.
  • Master’s or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

Benefits

  • Base salary range of $240,000 to $330,000 USD.
  • Additional compensation may include a bonus and company equity.
  • Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
  • 401(k) with company match.
  • Health savings accounts and life insurance.
  • Pet insurance and other benefits.
  • Hybrid schedule with in-office time in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas, or fully remote work available.

Interested in this position?

Apply directly on the company website

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