Director, Autonomy Perception

Overview

May Mobility is transforming cities through autonomous technology to create a safer, greener, more accessible world. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May develops and deploys autonomous vehicles (AVs) powered by our MPDM architecture that reimagines how AVs think. Our vehicles provide value to communities, bridge public transit gaps, and move people safely and enjoyably. Since 2017, we have delivered autonomy-enabled rides globally and continue to expand our impact.

We are hiring people who share a passion for building the future, solving real-world problems, and seeing the impact of their work. Join us.

The Director of Perception will lead the vision, strategy, and technical roadmap of the Autonomy Perception team. The role ensures May’s core autonomy software stack leverages high-quality data from sensors and sensor processing algorithms within the MPDM architecture.

This is a unique opportunity at the crossroads of cutting-edge autonomous driving technology, transformative mobility, and the products that enable change in the transportation landscape of cities today.

This position reports to the Sr. Director of Autonomy and provides world-class leadership to autonomy engineering managers and engineers to advance industry-leading technology.

• Be a technical thought leader to champion May Mobility’s mission, vision, values and company priorities; develop and execute autonomy strategy with fellow executives and engineering leaders.
• Work cross-functionally with Vehicle Engineering, Product, and Operations to solve and deploy solutions to autonomy perception challenges.
• Deliver innovative and robust advances to May’s perception technology with measurable improvements to object detection, classification, tracking, and prediction.
• Ensure core perception technologies operate efficiently and effectively in commercial deployments, including triage and resolution of related issues.
• Maintain an understanding of related research fields including machine learning, end-to-end learned systems, tracking systems, multi-sensor fusion, and behavior prediction.
• Lead design and specification of next-generation sensor suites to maximize perception system performance and optimize cost; work with systems and hardware teams to support prototyping and evaluating future systems.
• Develop and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to track autonomy performance.
• Identify key gaps and challenges in autonomy perception technology.
• Construct and execute a roadmap to solve key challenges; synchronize with other function roadmaps.
• Identify monthly, quarterly, and yearly milestones to iteratively improve performance.
• Oversee planning, execution, and success of complex technical projects; provide technical leadership to the team.
• Help set perception team hiring targets; interview, hire, and manage a diverse team of perception engineers and scientists.
• Oversee escalation of critical issues and opportunities within the autonomy team’s leadership; drive clear recommendations aligned with company priorities.

• Deep technical knowledge and demonstrated success in multi-sensor fusion, object detection, scene segmentation, tracking, and behavior prediction.
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to mitigate technical, integration, and personnel risks.
• Ability to operate in uncertain environments and translate concepts into executable plans.
• Proven ability to lead others, set goals, communicate clearly, and navigate difficult topics.
• Ability to clearly communicate technical concepts, including root cause analysis and data-backed results.
• Ability to collaborate with peers to jointly solve larger system issues.
• Proven ability to deliver under tight schedules.

Candidates most successful in this role typically hold the following qualifications or comparable knowledge or experience:

Required

• 10+ years of engineering experience
• PhD or masters degree in a relevant, highly technical field (e.g., robotics, computer science, computer engineering, aerospace engineering, physics)
• Ability to solve complex autonomy problems as a principal investigator, staff or principal…