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 Staff Software Engineer to help shape how learned models are integrated into behavior planning for autonomous driving. In this role, you will sit at the intersection of Planning and Machine Learning, working closely with ML engineers and autonomy teams to bring learned components into a production autonomy stack.
This is a high-impact role for someone who understands both the practical constraints of real-world planning systems and the opportunities enabled by modern learned models. You will help shape how ML improves autonomy behavior while ensuring that new capabilities are safe, measurable, debuggable, and deployable.
What You’ll Do- Lead Planning-side integration of learned models into the behavior planning stack.
- Collaborate closely with ML teams on model improvements, requirements, evaluation, and deployment.
- Work on learned planning components as well as other ML-driven planning signals, such as behavior classification, actor intent understanding, and data-driven decision-making.
- Design integration strategies that balance learned components with existing heuristic planning systems.
- Define validation, fallback, monitoring, and safety criteria for learned planning components.
- Debug and analyze model behavior using simulation, logs, metrics, and real-world autonomy data.
- Partner with cross-functional teams across Perception, ML, Planning, Simulation, Systems, and Safety.
- Lead technical designs and mentor other engineers.
- Strong experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or a related autonomy domain.
- Deep technical background in behavior planning, decision-making, or motion planning.
- Strong software engineering skills with proficiency in C++. Python proficiency is a plus.
- Experience working with heuristic or classical planning systems.
- Experience integrating or developing learned behavior policies, behavior classification, trajectory prediction, or actor intent models.
- Ability to reason about safety, system behavior, evaluation, and deployment risk.
- Excellent cross-functional communication and technical leadership skills.
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
Skills Required
- Strong experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or related autonomy domain.
- Deep technical background in behavior planning, decision-making, or motion planning.
- Proficiency in C++.
- Python proficiency.
- Experience with heuristic or classical planning systems.
- Experience integrating or developing learned behavior policies, behavior classification, trajectory prediction, or actor intent models.
- Ability to reason about safety, system behavior, evaluation, and deployment risk.
- Excellent cross-functional communication and technical leadership skills.
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.
Kodiak Robotics Insights
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.
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