We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments.
As a Motion Planning Engineer on the Fallback Stack team, you will design and ship deterministic, safety-critical planning systems that ensure autonomous vehicles behave safely when autonomy degrades or operates under uncertainty. This role emphasizes classical motion planning, predictable behavior, and large-scale evaluation, rather than deep learning–driven planning.
In addition to your engineering contributions, by working in our dynamic and customer-focused team culture, you will contribute to and learn from best practices in the nascent autonomy industry. We move fast and we focus on excellence, for our products and for our business. If you are hands-on and looking for a place to have a multiplying effect on making autonomous systems a reality, Applied is the place for you!- Design and implement classical or ML motion planners for fallback and minimal-risk maneuvers
- Build planners that operate reliably under degraded perception, partial observability, and system faults
Define and execute safe, deterministic vehicle motions such as controlled slow-downs, pull-overs, and safe stops - Use large-scale simulation and real-world data to evaluate planner behavior and guide parameter tuning
Develop metrics, analysis tools, and dashboards to understand planner performance at scale - Collaborate closely with behavior prediction, perception, controls, safety, and remote assistance teams
- Contribute to a reusable fallback platform used across trucking and other autonomy programs
- 5+ years of experience in motion planning for autonomous vehicles or robotics
- Strong foundation in robotic motion planning algorithms and trajectory generation (optimization-, search-, or rule-based)
- Experience building deterministic, safety-critical planning systems
- A data-driven mindset for large-scale evaluation, debugging, and tuning of planning behavior
- Proficiency in C++ and experience working in real-time systems
- Strong systems thinking and cross-functional collaboration skills
- Experience designing minimal-risk maneuvers (MRM) or emergency handling behaviors
- Familiarity with AV safety concepts, ODD constraints, or safety-case-driven development
- Experience using ML techniques for parameter tuning, calibration, or offline optimization
- Experience working with degraded sensors, uncertainty, or human-in-the-loop systemsBackground in simulation frameworks or large-scale log analysis
Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package, which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage, 401k retirement benefits with employer match, learning and wellness stipends, and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.
Applied Intuition pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum intended target base salary for new hire salaries for the position. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience, credentials & certifications, educational attainment, skill level requirements, interview performance, and the level and scope of the position.
Please reference the job posting’s subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the location listed is: $151,000 - $240,000 USD annually.
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471, Appendix A to Subpart A), relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience in motion planning for autonomous vehicles or robotics
- Strong foundation in robotic motion planning algorithms and trajectory generation
- Experience building deterministic, safety-critical planning systems
- Proficiency in C++ and experience working in real-time systems
- Strong systems thinking and cross-functional collaboration skills
Applied Intuition Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Applied Intuition and has not been reviewed or approved by Applied Intuition.
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Healthcare Strength — Health, dental, and vision coverage are described as comprehensive with employee premiums fully covered. Feedback suggests additional wellness and mental‑health provisions reinforce the overall healthcare offering.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave of up to 12 weeks is offered for birth, adoption, or foster placement. Feedback suggests this policy provides meaningful support for families.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Catered meals, snacks, expensed dinners, and fitness/learning stipends are part of the package. Feedback suggests these perks enhance day‑to‑day convenience and personal development.
Applied Intuition Insights
What We Do
As the foremost enabler of autonomous vehicle development, Applied Intuition equips engineering and product teams with software that makes it faster, safer, and easier to bring autonomy to market. Applied’s suite of products, focused on simulation and analytics, delivers sophisticated infrastructure built for scale. Companies of all sizes use Applied to comprehensively test and rapidly accelerate their autonomous vehicle development. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Detroit, Tokyo, and Munich, Applied is composed of software and automotive experts from the top companies in the world (such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Waymo, Tesla, Delphi, GM, and Bosch).
