We're Cruise, a self-driving service designed for the cities we love.

We’re building the world’s most advanced, self-driving vehicles to safely connect people to the places, things, and experiences they care about. We believe self-driving vehicles will help save lives, reshape cities, give back time in transit, and restore freedom of movement for many.

Cruisers have the opportunity to grow and develop while learning from leaders at the forefront of their fields. With a culture of internal mobility, there's an opportunity to thrive in a variety of disciplines. This is a place for dreamers and doers to succeed.

If you are looking to play a part in making a positive impact in the world by advancing the revolutionary work of self-driving cars, join us.

The Motion Planning team works across different layers of the planning and controls stack to enable the AV to plan and execute smooth, accurate, and safe motion in all environments. We focus on generating optimal trajectories considering vehicle capabilities, uncertain environments and disturbances, and real time computational constraints. Our work is critical for the safety and comfort of our passengers, as well as for scaling our AV capabilities to handle complex urban environments around the world in all weather conditions.
 

The Staff Motion Planning Engineer will lead and shape projects at the intersection of Motion Planning, Behavior Planning, and Controls. You will be a key contributor on a team that has significant impact to the AI organization and is on the critical path of Cruise business goals.
 

You will lead projects and initiatives, mentor engineers and support career development, work with other Engineering Managers and Technical Leads on design decisions and code review, and communicate team status and objectives with senior management across Cruise. 
 

What you'll be doing:

• Build new autonomous capabilities that enable the AV to navigate complex scenes and expand Cruise’s operational domain as we scale our business.

• Develop roadmaps and lead critical projects in Motion Planning and with partner teams.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers on the team.

• Work with teams across Cruise to foster a collaborative culture of testing, safety, and documentation

• Embody Cruise behaviors: Stay Safe, Own It, Stay Focused, Seek Truth, Work Together, Be Humble, Be A Customer
   

What you must have:

• 2+ years of experience in technical leadership in a fast-paced engineering organization.

• Demonstrated ability to drive complex projects and initiatives from start to completion, including conception, problem definition, experimentation, iteration, and productionisation. 

• Experience with cross-team collaboration, able to build strong partnerships with engineering, testing, product, operations, and safety teams. 

• Strong architectural mindset, ability to develop long-term roadmaps and balance with short-term priorities. 

• Deep understanding of model predictive control and trajectory optimization algorithms, including practical experience with tuning and testing.

• Good understanding of dynamics fundamentals and geometric algorithms.

• Experience writing C++ in a production environment 

• Modern software development (version control, code review, unit testing, CI, etc)

• Ph.D., M.S. in controls, optimization, path planning, or equivalent field. 
   

Bonus Points!

• Track record of impact in the AV industry.

• Experience with machine learning, especially in safety critical real-time systems.

• Experience with runtime performance of optimization algorithms in real world applications and on different compute platforms.

• Experience in code optimization or high-performance computing.

• Experience solving complex problems in simulation, metrics, and testing.

The salary range for this position is $193,900 - 285,000. Compensation will vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. You may also be offered a bonus, restricted stock units, and benefits. These ranges are subject to change.

Why Cruise?

• Our benefits are here to support the whole you:
• Medical / dental / vision, AD+D and life insurance
• Subsidized mental health benefits
• One Medical membership
• Flexible Spending Account 
• Monthly wellness stipend
• 401(k) match 
• Paid time off: vacation, sick, public health emergency, jury duty, bereavement and company holidays. 
• Paid parental, family care and medical leave
• Family care benefits: fertility benefi