Senior/ Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning

<h3><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Who we are</span></h3> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">The company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations.&nbsp;</span></p> <h3><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">About the role</span></h3> <div> <div> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We are seeking senior or staff software engineers to join our planning team to build motion planning and decision-making systems and help mature new products all the way through to production.&nbsp; Our planning team calculates safe paths for the autonomous vehicle to follow using mapping data, localization data, waypoints, and predicted actors around the vehicle. Your contribution will improve planning for emergency situations and planning for complicated maneuvers such as loading dock access and variable lane changes.&nbsp;</span></p> </div> <div><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Mountain View, CA office!</span></div> </div> <div> <h3 class="section page-centered"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><strong>What you'll do</strong></span></h3> <div class="section page-centered"> <ul> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Design, implement, and optimize the motion planning stack for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe, comfortable, and efficient driving in diverse real-world environments.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Develop lattice-based planners, sampling-based planners, and optimization-based methods for generating dynamically feasible, collision-free trajectories.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Integrate constraints from perception, prediction, and control to generate context-aware motion plans under uncertainty.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Collaborate cross-functionally with behavior planning, control, and mapping teams to ensure robust and consistent planning behavior.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Optimize and maintain C++-based infrastructure for trajectory generation, evaluation, and deployment in real-time onboard systems.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Analyze closed-loop simulation and on-road performance; identify and resolve failure cases involving traffic interactions, occlusions, or dynamic obstacles.</li> </ul> </div> <h3 class="section page-centered"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><strong>What we're looking for</strong></span></h3> <div class="section page-centered" data-qa="closing-description"> <ul> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Ph.D. with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years of experience in robotics, motion planning, or autonomous systems.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Deep expertise in at least two of the following: lattice-based planning, trajectory optimization, model predictive control, or search-based planning.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Strong proficiency in C++, with experience in production-quality code for real-time or safety-critical systems.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Solid understanding of vehicle dynamics, control interfaces, and motion feasibility constraints.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Experience with simulation tools and debugging motion planner behavior in realistic driving environments.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Knowledge of diffusion models and/or Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models is a strong plus.</li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; text-align: left;">Excellent analytical and system-level debugging skills; strong communication and cross-functional collaboration capabilities.</li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Salary Range - $180,000- $260,000</span></p> <h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">More about Gatik</span></h3> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Founded in 2017 by experts in autonomous vehicle technology, Gatik has rapidly expanded its presence to Mountain View, Dallas-Fort Worth, Arkansas, and Toronto. As the <em>first and only</em> company to achieve fully driverless middle-mile commercial deliveries, Gatik holds a unique and defensible position in the AV industry, with a clear trajectory toward sustainable growth and profitability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We have delivered complete, proprietary AV technology - an integration of software and hardware - to enable earlier successes for our clients in constrained Level 4 autonomy.&nbsp; By choosing the middle mile – with defined point-to-point delivery, we have simplified some of the more complex AV challenges, enabling us to achieve full autonomy ahead of competitors. Given extensive knowledge of Gatik’s well-defined, fixed route ODDs and hybrid architecture, we are able to hyper-optimize our models with exponentially less data, establish gate-keeping mechanisms to maintain explainability, and ensure continued safety of the system for unmanned operations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Visit us at <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://gatik.ai/">Gatik</a></span> for more company information and <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://gatik.ai/careers/">Careers at Gatik</a></span> for more open roles.</span></p> <h3><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Notable News</span></h3> <ul> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Bloomberg: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-27/autonomous-trucking-firm-gatik-inks-contracts-worth-600-million">Autonomous Trucking Firm Gatik Inks Contracts Worth $600 Million</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Forbes: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2026/01/28/hundreds-of-gatik-robot-delivery-trucks-headed-for-us-roads/?utm_campaign=ForbesMainLI&amp;utm_source=ForbesMainLinkedIn&amp;utm_medium=social">Hundreds’ Of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For U.S. Roads</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Forbes:<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2025/09/23/gatik-and-loblaw-announce-largest-commercial-deployment-of-av-trucks/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gatik And Loblaw Announce Largest Commercial Deployment Of AV Trucks</span></a></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Forbes:&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2023/09/05/forget-robotaxis-upstart-gatik-sees-middle-mile-deliveries-as-the-path-to-profitable-avs/?sh=52b7a7866e61">Forget robotaxis. Upstart Gatik sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Tech Brew: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/stories/2024/09/06/gatik-ai-richard-steiner-regulations-av-industry">Gatik AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Business Wire: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241008155613/en/Gatik-Paves-the-Way-for-Safe-Driverless-Operations-%E2%80%98Freight-Only%E2%80%99-at-Scale-with-Industry-First-Third-Party-Safety-Assessment-Framework">Gatik Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Auto Futures: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.autofutures.tv/news-features/autonomous-trucking-group-gatik-secures-investment-from-nippon-express-holdings/s/e125e5df-220b-42b6-b2df-754f54d602a9">Autonomous Trucking Group Gatik Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Automotive News: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/gatik-prepares-launch-self-driving-trucks-scale">Gatik foresees hundreds of self-driving trucks on road soon, and that's just the beginning</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Forbes: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2024/05/30/isuzu-and-gatik-go-all-in-to-scale-up-driverless-freight-services/">Isuzu And Gatik Go All In To Scale Up Driverless Freight Services</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Bloomberg: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-05-24/autonomous-vehicle-startup-takes-off-by-picking-off-easier-routes">Autonomous Vehicle Startup Takes Off by Picking Off Easier Routes</a></span></span></li> <li style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Reuters: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/driverless-vehicles-limited-routes-bump-along-despite-us-robotaxi-scrutiny-2023-12-13/">Driverless vehicles on limited routes bump along despite US robotaxi scrutiny</a></span></span></li> </ul> <h3><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">Taking care of our team</span></h3> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">At Gatik, we connect people of extraordinary talent and experience to an opportunity to create a more resilient supply chain and contribute to our environment’s sustainability. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives yet united by a bold vision and shared commitment to our values. Our culture emphasizes the importance of collaboration, respect and agility.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;">We at Gatik strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels they have opportunities to succeed and grow because we know that together we can do great things. We are committed to an inclusive and diverse team. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status or any legally protected status.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> </div> </div>