Software Engineer - Motion Planning

Title: Software Engineer - Motion Planning

Job Type: Contract - W2 only (No C2C or 1099 contractors)

Contract Length: 6+ months

Pay Range: $85-90/hr

Target

Start Date:

Immediate

Work Location/Structure: Hybrid - Foster City, CA

Our client, a leader in the Autonomous Vehicle Technology space, is looking for a skilled Software Engineer - Motion Planning to join their team for a 6+ months engagement. This project involves creating the next generation of algorithmic improvements to enhance the driving behaviors of their autonomous robots on public roads, focusing on safe and effective navigation in complex urban environments.

This is a high-impact role that requires a self-motivated professional who can hit the ground running and deliver results quickly.

• Implementing, debugging, and testing features and modifications to specific areas of driving behavior in a production code base.
• Working closely with senior engineers to understand design specifications and deliver reliable, high-quality code.
• Utilizing extensive backend tooling to run regression tests and validate your changes across various driving situations.
• Participating in on-vehicle drive reviews, helping to collect data and generate actionable feedback on driving performance.
• Collaborating across a broad set of experts spanning Planner, Perception, Prediction, and Operations.

• 1–5 years of professional experience in software development.
• Deep expertise in C++. This isn't a learning role—you need to be a subject matter expert.
• Familiarity with foundational concepts of motion planning and pathfinding techniques (e.g., A*, RRTs, PRMs).
• Experience with large-scale codebases and version control (e.g., Git).
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and manage your own time effectively to meet project goals.
• Experience with software development workflows and a strong eagerness to learn and debug complex, real-time systems.
• Strong communication skills to provide clear and concise status updates to the project team.

• Coursework or project experience in geometric and/or sampling-based planning algorithms.
• Experience with autonomous robots, simulation environments, or machine learning/data-driven development processes.
• Experience with ROS, pose estimation, SLAM, probabilistic filtering, or CUDA.