Staff Software Engineer – Secondary Driving System

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California.

📋 Description

• Act as the technical lead for SDS software across various components of the stack, guiding the direction for algorithms, architectures, and system interfaces throughout features and releases.

• Take ownership of the complete technical strategy for key SDS behaviors and features, encompassing perception/prediction integration, planning, controls, and system-level interactions.

• Balance practical technical tasks with leadership across teams: you will design and implement crucial components in modern C++, while also mentoring other senior and mid-level engineers to achieve large-scale delivery.

• Collaborate intimately with specialists in perception, tracking, prediction, state estimation, localization, mapping, planning, controls, systems engineering, and safety to ensure the delivery of resilient, fail-operational behaviors for Super Cruise and upcoming products.

• Define the technical vision and architecture, establishing the technical direction for SDS software components with an emphasis on correctness, resilience, and predictable runtime behavior within stringent latency and computational constraints.

• Design scalable, modular multi-sensor perception pipelines for camera, radar, and lidar, incorporating detection, classification, lane/road feature extraction, free space/occupancy analysis, and environmental context.

• Develop and refine interfaces and contracts among perception/prediction and upstream/downstream components (state estimation, localization, mapping, planning, controls, and autonomy management).

• Spearhead high-impact projects, guiding the design and delivery of multi-object tracking systems (e.g., Kalman/extended/unscented filters, IMM, probabilistic data association, track lifecycle management) that maintain stable, high-quality tracks amidst real-world noise and edge cases.

• Propel the development and integration of short-horizon motion prediction for vehicles, vulnerable road users (VRUs), and other entities using a blend of analytical models and ML-based forecasting, including uncertainty modeling that facilitates conservative, fail-operational decisions.

• Assess trade-offs between conventional computer vision/robotics and ML-based methods, selecting the appropriate approach for each challenge and ensuring solutions are production-ready under latency and computational constraints.

• Design and execute critical components in modern C++ (C++17 or later), paying close attention to memory management, concurrency, and real-time functionality; employ Python for tooling, data analysis, and ML experimentation.

• Establish and maintain high standards for software quality: well-documented APIs, thorough code reviews, automated and regression testing, continuous integration, and comprehensive logging and observability for on-road incidents.

• Profile and optimize SDS components to adhere to strict runtime performance, determinism, and resource-usage criteria, utilizing offline and online evaluation frameworks and metrics to inform iteration, regression detection, and performance enhancement.

• Collaborate with state estimation, localization, mapping, and autonomy management partners to guarantee that SDS perception and prediction behaviors support reliable engagement and MRM in response to primary stack failures.

• Partner with Safety and Systems Engineering to ensure that designs and implementations comply with functional safety, redundancy, and MRM requirements for fail-operational, eyes-off features.

• Represent SDS perception and prediction in cross-organizational technical forums, ensuring alignment with broader autonomy, platform, and hardware roadmaps.

• Provide technical mentorship to other engineers, from onboarding through the development of senior and staff-level talent in perception/tracking/prediction and modern C++.

• Lead and facilitate design reviews, incident post-mortems, and cross-team technical deep dives, elevating standards for clarity, robustness, and execution speed.

• Foster a healthy engineering culture: pragmatic, data-driven decision-making; strong ownership; and a focus on safety, reliability, and customer experience.

⛳️ Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline; or equivalent relevant experience.

• Over 8 years of professional software engineering experience in building production systems in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or other complex real-time/control systems, with significant expertise in perception and/or prediction.

• Strong expertise in modern C++ (e.g., C++14/17 or later) within large, multi-contributor codebases; experience utilizing Python for tooling, data analysis, and ML experimentation.

• Proven experience in leading the technical design and delivery of perception, tracking, or prediction systems in real-time environments, including:

• Multi-sensor fusion across camera, radar, and/or lidar (e.g., object-level fusion, occupancy/free space fusion, early/late fusion architectures)

• Classical computer vision and geometric algorithms (feature extraction, multi-view geometry, stereo, SfM, SLAM/visual odometry)

• Multi-object tracking (Kalman/extended/unscented filters, track-to-track fusion, track lifecycle management)

• Motion prediction for road users (analytical kinematic models, maneuver-based prediction, or learned trajectory forecasting models)

• Demonstrated track record of delivering dependable, high-quality robotics or autonomous driving software to production, including:

• Testing strategies (simulation, HIL, scenario-based testing, regression suites)

• Robust metrics and dashboards for monitoring perception/prediction performance

• Performance optimization under strict latency and computational constraints

• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to:

• Clarify ambiguous technical situations

• Influence engineers and leaders across ML, systems, platform, hardware, and safety domains

• Document and convey complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.

• A passion for automated driving and robotics, along with a commitment to building systems that significantly enhance safety and driver experience.

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical

• Dental

• Vision

• Health Savings Account

• Flexible Spending Accounts

• Retirement savings plan

• Sickness and accident benefits

• Life insurance

• Paid vacation & holidays

• Tuition assistance programs

• Employee assistance program

• GM vehicle discounts