Principal Software Engineer, Motion Planning

The Company

Outrider is a software company that is automating distribution yards with electric, self-driving trucks. Our system eliminates manual tasks that are hazardous and repetitive while it improves safety and efficiency. Outrider’s mission is to drive the rapid adoption of sustainable freight transportation. We are a private company founded in 2018 and backed by NEA, 8VC, Koch Disruptive Technologies, NVIDIA, and other top-tier investors. Our customers are Fortune 200 companies and our autonomous trucks are already running in distribution yards. For more information, visit www.outrider.ai

At Outrider, you'll develop, improve upon, and ship cutting-edge software that drives next-generation freight transportation. Your work will directly contribute to autonomous systems that move millions of tons of freight across shipping & logistics centers, revolutionizing the way goods are transported globally. Over time, your contributions will enhance efficiency, safety, precision, and sustainability across the supply chain. Throughout your time at Outrider, you'll collaborate across teams and functions to build and maintain robust systems that keep the global economy moving.

The Team

You are joining a growing team that is responsible for motion planning, controls, and behaviors for Outrider’s autonomous trucks. This team is collaborative and committed to continuous improvement. The team members proactively utilize tools such as simulation and data analytics to understand the performance of the product at scale in diverse situations, and they maintain a state-of-the-art motion planning stack by routinely studying new techniques from the research community. Leadership, growth, and development opportunities are plentiful.

The Role

As a full-time Principal Motion Planning Engineer, you will develop and deploy high-performance software that is responsible for controlling the behaviors of our automated electric yard truck that transports trailers around customer sites. You will steer and execute the technical strategy for our planning stack. You will collaboratively solve big technical challenges together with a talented engineering team that is customer-focused and motivated to make this product a reality. You will have the support of a leadership that is laser focused on a product.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and deploy motion planning and controls algorithms
• Develop cutting-edge C++ software running on autonomous vehicles that controls their maneuvers and avoids collision with nearby obstacles
• Build new features to support the needs of our customers in global distribution centers
• Monitor performance metrics of our product operating at customer sites and develop new performance metrics to meet the customers’ needs
• Contribute generally to the growth and success of Outrider and the building of a vibrant culture focused on the responsible deployment of zero-emission autonomous vehicle technology
• Provide technical and theoretical guidance to planning team
• Communicate and distill evaluations and results to the leadership
• Help to design/improve our key tools: simulation, evaluation, compute
• Lead cross functional efforts with the other autonomy stakeholders and upstream/downstream components

Required Qualifications

• Familiarity with state of the art, best practices, and research in navigation, motion planning and controls
• Strong C++ software development skills
• Proven track record in navigation and planning in robotics
• Experience working in competitive AI companies & startups
• Ability to design, implement, and deploy motion planning and control software stacks
• A growth mindset
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Recurring success in multiple technical projects of increasing complexity
• Proven success developing motion planning and controls software for a robot or autonomous vehicle outside of the laboratory
• Degree in CS or equivalent
• Fluency in English

Ideal Qualifications

• Experience with software development on autonomous vehicles
• Experience participating in github repos, or open source projects
• Experience working on safety certifiable autonomous systems
• Familiarity with the robot operating system (ROS)
• Experience with containerized environments, such as Docker

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $250,000 - $450,000+
• Equity: Significant equity package commensurate on experience and skills
• Benefits: Full health benefits
• Fully remote, with exciting opportunities to travel to our Denver headquarters for team collaborations and special events.
• Home office stipend up to $500 to help you create a comfortable and productive workspace.
• Actual compensation is based on several factors, including but not limited to job-related skills, qualifications, experience, and specific work location due to differences in the cost of labor

At Outrider, we believe in cultivating an environment where there is diversity of perspectives, experiences, and knowledge with the expectation that we thrive in an inclusive environment. Outrider is committed to a workforce where everyone's opportunities are limitless regardless of race, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, veteran status, or any others that are protected by law.

To protect yourself against the increasing number of recruiting scams, please make sure that you are communicating with Outrider Technologies, Inc. or one of its employees. The only way to communicate with us is through our corporate website at www.outrider.ai, through corporate emails utilizing our domain name of @outrider.ai, and through our job board at jobs.lever.co/outrider. Be vigilant when checking domains because imitators often make very small changes to trick the eye. Additionally, please know that Outrider does not use text messaging or public messaging platforms, such as Telegram or Whatsapp, to communicate with candidates and Outrider will never ask an employment candidate for financial information or for payment of any kind.