Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology. In 2024, Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.
We are looking for a Software Engineer with deep expertise in computational geometry to join our Motion Planning team. In this role, you’ll design and implement the geometric foundations that power mission-critical systems across our stack. You’ll be building a high-performance geometry library that is robust, mathematically rigorous, and optimized for modern hardware, enabling advanced applications in autonomy, simulation, and beyond.
What you’ll do:
- Build the core library: Design, implement, and maintain a library of computational geometry algorithms in modern C++.
- Develop primitives: Create and optimize fundamental operations, such as distances, intersections, projections, polygon operations, and convex hulls, for complex geometries.
- Maximize performance: Profile and optimize code for CPU architectures (especially x86), leveraging cache-efficient data layouts, and instruction-level parallelism.
- Ensure reliability: Establish a testing framework to guarantee numerical stability, robustness, and correctness at scale.
- Enable visibility: Develop tools for visualizing, debugging, and validating geometric computations.
- Collaborate & integrate: Partner with other engineering teams to design clean APIs and integrate the geometry library into larger systems.
- Innovate: Research and apply state-of-the-art methods from academia and industry to tackle novel geometric challenges.
What you’ll bring:
- Strong background in computational geometry, linear algebra, and applied mathematics (MS, PhD, or equivalent experience).
- 4+ years of software engineering experience, including meaningful experience in production C++.
- Deep grasp of CPU/GPU architecture, cache/memory layouts, SIMD, and parallel algorithms.
- A rigorous, test-driven mindset with high standards for software quality and mathematical correctness.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills, able to work across teams and explain complex ideas clearly.
- Hands-on, proactive approach to problem-solving and performance tuning.
Bonus Points:
- GPU programming experience with CUDA or OpenCL.
- Experience with motion planning, trajectory optimization, prediction, or controls for autonomous systems.
- Proficiency in Python or TypeScript for prototyping, tooling, or bindings.
- Familiarity with SIMD instruction sets (AVX, SSE).
- Experience with libraries like Clipper or Boost.Geometry.
- Robotics/AV background (planning, mapping, SLAM, 3D graphics/CAD/physics sim).
What we offer:
- Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses
- Excellent 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, & Critical Illness Insurance
- Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies
- Our office is centrally located in Mountain View, CA
- Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging
- Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance
- Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, Rula (mental health navigation)
- Fidelity 401(k)
- Commuter, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA
- Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)
The pay range listed below reflects the base salary in our SF/Silicon Valley location, across several internal levels. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors including: work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level and performance during interview. Total compensation at Kodiak includes base pay, equity, bonus and a competitive benefits package
Kodiak Robotics Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Kodiak Robotics and has not been reviewed or approved by Kodiak Robotics.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered market-competitive for core engineering roles, with role postings indicating strong senior bands and offers aligned to autonomy peers. Salary ranges visible on listings reinforce competitiveness for experienced technical hires.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity grants are commonly included with standard multi‑year vesting, and listings frequently note salary plus bonus and equity as part of offers. This makes ownership a regular component of total rewards for technical hires.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage includes medical, dental, and vision alongside life and short‑/long‑term disability, with FSA/HSA options available. Wellness partners such as mental‑health and primary‑care services are highlighted alongside core plans.
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What We Do
Kodiak Robotics is an autonomous technology company redefining the long-haul trucking industry. We believe self-driving trucks will be the first economically viable application of autonomous vehicle technology. We founded Kodiak in the spring of 2018 to make that belief a reality. Safety is our top priority. We are taking a safe and responsible approach to developing and testing our technology. We are proud to work with some of the best in the business. We’ve built a world class team of technologists from leading autonomous driving programs who know the industry inside and out. Our combined experience and commitment to the vision will allow us to put self-driving technology on the road in the safest and most effective way.






