Senior Software Engineer (Motion & Behavior Planning)

Requirements

• Deep background in robotics, motion planning, optimization, controls, or related fields
• MS, PhD, or equivalent experience in a technically rigorous domain
• 6+ years of experience building production software, including substantial experience in C++
• Proven track record of owning and delivering complex technical projects with real-world impact
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to work effectively across software boundaries and organizational interfaces
• Excellent technical judgment, communication, and collaboration skills
• Ability to balance long-term design quality with fast, pragmatic iteration in a production environment
• (Desirable) Experience shipping autonomy or robotics software on real vehicles or robotic platforms
• (Desirable) Strong knowledge of motion planning, trajectory optimization, prediction, optimal control, or related areas in the autonomous systems
• (Desirable) Experience working on real-time, performance-critical systems
• (Desirable) Experience building evaluation, debugging, and data-analysis tools for autonomy or robotics stacks
• (Desirable) Track record of mentoring engineers and leading technical direction across projects

What the job involves

• We are looking for an experienced Software Engineer to join our Behavior & Motion Planning team and lead the development of core planning capabilities that directly shape how the Kodiak Driver behaves on the road
• This is a senior technical role for engineers who thrive on ambiguous, high-leverage problems at the intersection of robotics, optimization, and real-time systems
• You will own complex planning challenges end-to-end: framing the problem, aligning stakeholders, designing the technical approach, driving implementation, and validating on-road impact
• Your work will influence not only individual algorithms, but also the architecture, interfaces, and evaluation strategies that enable the planning stack to scale
• You will work across Planning, Perception, Simulation, Systems, and related teams to create cross-functional solutions to some of the hardest problems in autonomous trucking
• You should be excited to combine deep technical judgment with hands-on execution, using data from real-world operation to improve safety, driving quality, and system performance
• Lead the design and deployment of behavior and motion-planning capabilities for complex real-world driving scenarios
• Own ambiguous technical problems from concept through production rollout and iterative refinement
• Shape the architecture, interfaces, and requirements across planning-related systems
• Translate high-level driving goals into robust algorithms, cost functions, and performance-critical production code
• Drive improvements in planning quality, prediction integration, latency, and overall system reliability
• Build and influence evaluation frameworks, tooling, and workflows that turn real-world logs into measurable autonomy improvements
• Provide technical leadership across cross-functional efforts and raise engineering quality through strong design and code reviews
• Mentor other engineers and help guide technical direction within the team