Senior Autonomy Engineer, Perception

<div class="content-intro"><p>Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology. In 2024, Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.</p></div><p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We are seeking a Staff Autonomy Perception Engineer to join our Perception Engineering team. In this role, you will use your expertise in state estimation & multi object tracking to shape the perception stack as we scale, incorporating and developing state of the art algorithms and techniques. You’ll leverage advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) models and techniques to deploy and scale safe autonomous perception systems. If you're passionate about how robots perceive and understand the world at scale, this role is for you.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>What You'll Do</strong></span></p>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Define and lead the technical direction for learned scene estimation within the Kodiak Driver</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Architect and implement principled approaches for fusing information across multiple modalities: camera, radar, lidar, thermal, and IMU</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lead improvements to multi-target tracking including track initiation, measurement-to-track association, and track state maintenance — with a focus on reliability in the hardest real-world conditions</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Develop novel algorithms that incorporate noisy, incomplete measurements into a robust foundational understanding of the world</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Build the tooling, metrics, and visualization infrastructure that lets the team move faster and evaluate progress rigorously</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Set a high technical standard across the Perception team through design reviews, code reviews, and mentorship</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Partner with teams across autonomy to ensure perception performance translates into system-wide safety and reliability</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="p3"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>What You'll Bring</strong></span></p>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">BS or MS with at least 8 years of industry experience, or PhD with at least 5 years, building and deploying state estimation and sensor fusion systems</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Deep domain expertise across sensor fusion, state estimation, Kalman filtering, particle filtering, and multi-object tracking</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Strong experience with deep learning and learned scene estimation — you know when to use classical methods and when learned approaches win</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Exceptional C++ skills and a track record of writing highly maintainable, production-quality code in high-reliability systems</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The ability to define metrics, design rigorous evaluations, and use data to make principled engineering decisions</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A history of technical leadership — you have driven projects from ambiguous problem to shipped solution and raised the level of the teams around you</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Strong written and verbal communication; you write clear design docs and build alignment across disciplines</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="p4"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Bonus Points:</strong></span></p>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Behavior prediction and scene understanding at scale</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Real-time perception systems under latency and compute constraints</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Autonomous vehicle or robotics deployment in unstructured environments</span></li>
<li class="li2" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Experience defining team-level technical roadmaps or leading multi-engineer efforts</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><strong>What we offer:</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and  MetLife (including a medical plan with infertility benefits)</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">MetLife Legal Services, Identity & Fraud Protection, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Accident Insurance, & Critical Illness Insurance</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Our office is centrally located in Mountain View, CA</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, Rula (mental health navigation) </span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Fidelity 401(k)</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Commuter, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)</span></li>
</ul><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><p>The pay range listed below reflects the base salary <strong data-stringify-type="bold">in our SF/Silicon Valley location, </strong>across several internal levels. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors including: work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level and performance during interview. Total compensation at Kodiak includes base pay, equity, bonus and a competitive benefits package</p></div><div class="title">California Pay Range</div><div class="pay-range"><span>$200,000</span><span class="divider">—</span><span>$255,000 USD</span></div></div></div><div class="content-conclusion"><div> </div>
<div>At Kodiak, we strive to build a diverse community working towards our common company goals in a safe and collaborative environment where harassment of any kind is strictly prohibited. Kodiak is committed to equal opportunity employment regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.</div>
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<div>In alignment with its business operations, Kodiak adheres to all relevant statutes, regulations, and administrative prerequisites. Accordingly, roles that carry more sensitive requirements may be limited to candidates that can satisfy additional scrutiny and eligibility for such positions may hinge on verification of a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status. Should the position require, and Kodiak determines that a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status necessitate an export license, bar the candidate from the position, or otherwise fall under national security-related restrictions, Kodiak will consider the candidate for alternative positions unaffected by such restrictions, under terms and conditions set forth at Kodiak’s sole discretion, or, as an alternative, opt not to proceed with the candidate’s application. If applicable, Kodiak may provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates.</div>
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<div><em>We use a third-party AI tool (Endorsed) to assist in the initial screening of applications. As part of the evaluation process, we provide Endorsed with job requirements and candidate-submitted applications. Final hiring decisions are made by our human recruitment team, and no automated system makes the ultimate decision regarding hiring. Certain features of the platform may qualify it as an Automated Employment Decision Tool (AEDT) under applicable regulations. We began using Endorsed on January 1, 2026. You can review the independent bias audit report covering our use of Endorsed [here](</em><em><a href="https://endorsed.com/local-law-144" target="_blank" data-sk="tooltip_parent">https://endorsed.com/local-law-144</a></em><em>). By submitting your application, you acknowledge that your application may be processed by AI systems as part of the screening and selection process. If you have any questions or would like to request a separate review of your application, please contact </em><em><a href="mailto:careers@kodiak.ai" target="_blank" data-sk="tooltip_parent">careers@kodiak.ai</a></em><em> with "Separate Review Request" in the email subject line.</em></div>
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