Senior Motion Planning Engineer — Autonomous Vehicles

Motion Planning & Fleet Coordination

Location: San Francisco, CA — on-site, five days per week
Compensation: $176,000–$240,000 base + competitive equity + annual bonus
Visa Support: Transfers and new sponsorships welcome

About the Opportunity

Our client develops autonomous systems for demanding industrial environments. Its technology operates in commercial deployments, giving engineers the opportunity to solve planning problems that directly affect real-world productivity and safety.

The company is expanding its planning team and seeking a Senior Robotics Planning Engineer to develop the algorithms that guide individual vehicles and coordinate entire fleets. You’ll work in an engineering-led environment with substantial ownership over technical decisions and implementation.

The Role

You’ll build planning systems for heavy autonomous ground vehicles, from generating feasible paths and trajectories to coordinating traffic and assigning work across a site.

This role requires direct experience developing motion planning algorithms. Your work will help vehicles navigate obstacles, negotiate shared spaces, avoid deadlocks, and operate efficiently as a fleet.

Requirements

• 5+ years of robotics or autonomy engineering experience.

• Hands-on experience building path planning or trajectory optimization for robots or autonomous vehicles. This is a core requirement. Experience in perception, sensors, or systems integration alone does not meet it.

• Strong understanding of motion planning algorithms, including non-holonomic planning and the movement constraints of ground vehicles.

• Strong Python and NumPy skills for numerical computing and algorithm development.

• Experience taking autonomy software beyond research or simulation into real-world deployment.

• A BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field.

• Comfort working with ambiguity, taking technical ownership, and establishing approaches where processes are still developing.

• Availability to work on-site in San Francisco five days per week, including relocation if needed.

What You’ll Do

• Develop path and trajectory planning: Build algorithms that help autonomous vehicles navigate obstacles safely while reducing unnecessary stops.

• Improve intersection management: Determine vehicle crossing sequences that reduce congestion and total wait time.

• Coordinate multiple vehicles: Plan around intersecting trajectories to prevent conflicts, collisions, and deadlocks.

• Build fleet planning algorithms: Translate changing site conditions into vehicle assignments and coordinated activity.

• Support live deployments: Work with controls and systems engineers to evaluate behavior, diagnose issues, and improve performance in the field.

• Help shape the planning team: Contribute to architecture, technical practices, and the development of new planning capabilities.

Some schedule flexibility is required during live testing and deployment phases.

Preferred Qualifications

• Motion planning experience with trucks or other non-holonomic ground vehicles.

• Experience with multi-vehicle coordination, traffic management, or fleet planning.

• Production engineering experience at a robotics or autonomous vehicle company.

• C++ programming experience.

• Familiarity with computational geometry, Shapely, or collision detection.

• A master’s degree or PhD focused on robotics or motion planning.

Compensation & Benefits

• $176,000–$240,000 base salary

• Competitive equity and annual bonus

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Life and disability insurance

• FSA/HSA options

• 401(k)

• Unlimited PTO and paid parental leave

• Pre-tax commuter benefits

• Flexible daily hours within the on-site work arrangement

Visa transfers and new sponsorships are welcome.