Principal Motion Planning Engineer

On our Motion Planning Controls team, you'll apply your passion in robotics and software development for production-ready autonomous vehicles. In this role you'll perform ground breaking research, conduct design processes, and implement performance-critical algorithms to generate safe, comfortable, and intuitive autonomous vehicle behaviors across Motional’s fleet of robotaxis.
Technical Scope:
Develop state-of-the-art motion control and trajectory optimization formulation to ensure vehicle autonomously navigates safely and smoothly
Integrate and evaluate combinations of trajectory optimization and tracking algorithms
Design and build robust and scalable software that enables rapid exploration and evaluation of different motion planning approaches and algorithms.
Collaborate with upstream decision/behavior planning and prediction and downstream motion tracking algorithms.
Leverage modern development toolchains including testing, simulation, and continuous integration, to enable rapid development cycles.
Role responsibilities:
Understands and explains trade-offs, complex concepts to peers and leaders to drive decisions.
Creates project proposals that drive long-term technical roadmap and span multiple sub-systems.
Provides high quality code and design reviews based on deep understanding of the teams’ services and technologies.
Mentor team members to develop a culture of product focused engineering, research, and development.
What we're looking for:
8+ years of robotics motion controls
5+ years C++ development in production environments
Masters, or PhD degree preferred in Robotics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
Experience with Model Predictive Control (MPC), state estimation, robust control, vehicle dynamics, and simulation environments
Understanding of numerical optimization algorithms (interior point method, sequential quadratic programming, etc)
Experience with optimization solvers (IPOPT, Gurobi, etc)
Past experience owning and leading technical development on features from problem formulation, algorithm design, through implementation
Knowledge of Python is a bonus
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 autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is 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 longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between 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

www.Motional.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.

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