Principal Software Engineer - AI Data Engine

Salary: $200,000 - 275,000 per year Requirements:

• We are looking for a BS or MS in Computer Science or a related discipline.
• We need 6+ years of professional experience in data platform engineering.
• We are seeking 3+ years of experience in a technical lead, staff engineer, or senior architecture position, with a strong record of guiding cross-functional technical efforts and mentoring senior engineers.
• We want extensive experience managing large-scale data platforms at petabyte-plus scale, including data warehouses, object storage, and ML training data stores.
• We require deep experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Airflow or Step Functions.
• We need strong programming ability in Python; C++ experience is a plus.
• We are looking for proven experience designing, building, and deploying agentic workflows and multi-agent systems using frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, DSPy, or custom LLM orchestration tools.
• We want knowledge of modern storage formats such as Parquet and Iceberg, as well as vector databases such as LanceDB, Milvus, or Qdrant, and retrieval architectures like RAG for large multimodal datasets.
• We need strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, including AWS or Google Cloud Platform, distributed computing, and scalable model serving.
• We are seeking prior experience building data warehouses, lakehouse architectures, or active-learning data loops in advanced machine learning, robotics, or autonomous vehicle environments.
• Bonus: prior autonomous vehicle experience is a plus.
• Bonus: prior experience with Bazel-based build systems is a plus.

• We will rely on you to serve as the technical anchor for a high-performing team of data and infrastructure engineers building our data stack.
• You will shape the technical roadmap, architectural priorities, and project scope in line with broader engineering goals.
• You will provide deep technical direction, peer mentorship, and help establish rigorous engineering standards and best practices.
• You will define and carry out the technical vision and architecture for storing metrics and generating ML datasets for large computer vision and behavioral models.
• You will evaluate and prototype emerging technologies and methods to speed up data loaders, metric ingestion, and querying of massive datasets for dashboards and training workflows.
• You will contribute hands-on to the most complex and high-impact architectural challenges in our data engine space.
• You will work closely with ML research, ML training platform, and data engineering teams to understand needs, co-design scalable solutions, and integrate them effectively.
• You will build alignment on technical direction and communicate complex architectural ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Airflow
• AWS
• Bazel
• Cloud
• Computer Vision
• LLM
• Machine Learning
• Model Serving
• Python
• RAG
• Robotics
• Agentic AI
• AI
• Architect
• Data Warehouse
• Support

More:

We are Motional, a driverless technology company working to make autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. Our mission is people first: we are building technology that improves safety, expands transportation access, and strengthens the communities we serve. We offer a collaborative, diverse, and inclusive culture, with a hybrid schedule that includes in-office time in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas, or the option to work fully remote. Eligible employees can participate in our benefits program, which includes medical, dental, vision, 401k with company match, health savings accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. The role is based on a salary range of $200,000-$275,000 USD, with potential for additional bonus or equity compensation.

last updated 33 week of 2026