Senior Software Engineer, AV Planner – Autonomous Vehicles

Details

NVIDIA is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, AV Planner to work on state-of-the-art autonomous vehicle technologies alongside experts in AI, deep learning, computer vision, mapping, prediction, and vehicle control. The role focuses on developing, maintaining, and integrating behavior and motion planning algorithms and software for sophisticated urban driving. Prior knowledge of L4 autonomy, safety-critical systems, real-time software, and large-scale evaluation is highly valued.

Responsibilities

• Develop and ship behavior and trajectory planning for an L4 robotaxi, including lane changes, merges, intersections, unprotected turns, yielding, stop-and-go, and curbside operations.
• Design planning technologies for the autonomous vehicle software stack and write new software modules from scratch to support safe and comfortable driving in dense urban environments.
• Build optimization-, sampling-, and search-based planning approaches subject to vehicle dynamics and constraints, including collision avoidance, comfort and jerk limits, and road-rule compliance.
• Define and implement fallback and degraded-mode behaviors, such as safe stops and minimal-risk maneuvers, and contribute to safety-oriented design, including failure modes, redundancy, and validation evidence.
• Integrate planning with prediction, perception, mapping and localization, and controls. Define clean interfaces and troubleshoot end-to-end system issues using logs and scenario replay.
• Build and improve offline and closed-loop simulation benchmarks and planning-quality metrics covering safety, legality, comfort, and progress.
• Develop tools for debugging, scenario triage and mining, evaluation automation, and parameter and configuration management across vehicle platforms.
• Drive integration efforts across different platforms and vehicle types, and support on-vehicle issue reproduction and resolution.
• Collaborate across functions, tackle difficult technical problems, and contribute to building a world-class autonomous vehicle system.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s, master’s, or higher degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 12 or more years of experience in the relevant field.
• Strong software engineering skills in C and C++, including production-quality, performance-aware, and testable code.
• Python experience for tooling and evaluation is a plus.
• Hands-on knowledge of several areas including motion planning, decision-making, optimization, search, sampling-based planning, geometry, vehicle dynamics and kinematics, and real-time systems.
• Experience building and using simulation and evaluation pipelines, writing unit and integration tests, and preventing regressions through automation.
• Strong debugging skills across multi-module systems and the ability to turn ambiguous on-road or simulation failures into actionable fixes.
• Clear communication and effective collaboration across prediction, perception, controls, and safety functions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience shipping urban or L4 robotaxi planning, including behavior and trajectory planning, with measurable improvements in safety and ride quality.
• Experience with interaction-aware or uncertainty-aware planning, risk-sensitive decision-making, robust constraints, or prediction coupling.
• Experience with automotive safety concepts and analysis methods such as FMEA, as well as credible validation strategies.
• A track record of leading architecture or roadmaps and mentoring, or rapidly delivering high-quality features with strong engineering fundamentals.
• PhD with relevant experience or significant industry experience in autonomy or robotics.

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary range: USD 224,000–356,500 per year, determined by location, experience, and compensation of employees in similar positions.
• Eligible for equity and benefits.
• Applications will be accepted at least until August 31, 2026.
• NVIDIA is an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive work environment.