Principal Motion Planning Engineer

On our Motion Planning team you'll provide leadership, perform research, and write scalable software that decides how our autonomous vehicles should move with safety, comfort, and intuition in mind. Specific terms to associate with our multiple motion planning teams include behavior, navigation, path, and route planning.  Model predictive control & trajectory optimization. Machine learning for motion planning.  You’ll have the ability to impact one or multiple teams.

Role responsibilities:

• Perform research and build algorithms from design, prototyping, testing, deployment, to productization. 
• Integrate and evaluate combinations of motion planning and prediction algorithms
• Design and build robust and scalable codebase that enables rapid exploration and evaluation of different motion planning approaches and algorithms.
• Use software development expertise to teach others best software practices and principles.  
• Develop clean software for the motion planning and decision-making modules that sit at the core of autonomous driving systems and interface with all other key modules such localization, control, and perception. 
• Be a lead team member providing mentorship and contributing to technical strategy, with or without direct reports.
• Guide and mentor junior team members to develop a culture of product focused engineering, research, and development.

Experience to bring:

• 8+ years research experience in robotics motion planning
• 8+ years C++ software development
• Past experience owning and leading technical development on features from problem formulation through implementation and deployment
• Thirst for knowledge and continuous innovation
• Experience in Machine Learning is a bonus: deep learning, Python, PyTorch, planning under uncertainty, prediction
• Education: Masters or PhD degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 

Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.

Salary Range$199,000—$266,500 USD

Motional is a driverless technology company making self-driving vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality.

The Motional team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who together are creating a first-of-its-kind technology with the potential to transform the way we move. We’re behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's most-established public robotaxi fleet.

As a leader in an emerging industry that has the promise of creating safer, more reliable and accessible transportation for all, it’s imperative we have a diverse workforce, create an inclusive culture, and understand the communities we operate in around the world. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is fundamental to Motional’s success. That’s why we’ve established a team to ensure DEI is at the forefront of the candidate and employee experience, beginning with the hiring process and continuing throughout your career. We also partner with organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers to ensure our DEI work is informed by the latest thinking and approaches.

Strategically formed by Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit