- Robot type
- Autonomous Vehicle · Defense
- Location
- SeattleWashingtonUSA
- Job type
- Software
- Posted
- Aug 21, 2026
Full-time
Software Engineer - Trajectory Optimization
Job description
Role Summary: We are seeking a Software Engineer – Trajectory Optimization to design and implement planning algorithms in complex off-road and on-road terrain using local sensing for unmanned ground vehicles. These systems must perform in punishing terrain: understanding how to balance fidelity and optimality against computational efficiency and robustness is a must for high-speed movement . The ideal candidate has experience with model predictive control, system identification, and a deep intuition for how physical platforms interact with the world when tires meet dirt .
Job responsibilities
- Design and implement local trajectory optimization algorithms for autonomous ground vehicles.
- Support rapid integration and adjustment of planning algorithms for a wide variety of vehicles and sensing modalities.
- Work closely with other teams on software development of a shared codebase.
- Leverage a significant corpus of offroad driving data to improve and backstop performance via regression and progression testing.
- Participate in field tests and demonstrations / events for product testing and evaluation.
Job requirements
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related discipline and 5+ years of relevant experience; OR 3+ years of relevant professional experience with an advanced degree.
- Development experience developing production grade software in Python or C++.
- MS degree or PhD preferred.
- Experience as a software engineer working on motion planning.
- Experience working with safety critical systems and certification.
- Experience working with autonomous robotic systems (e.g. UAVs, UWVs) – UGVs preferred.
- Experience with / understanding of the differences between GPU and CPU programming paradigms.