Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning

AeroVect is hiring a Staff Software Engineer to design and build planning systems for autonomous driving in structured, low-speed environments. The role owns mission, behavior, and motion planning software, advances planning architecture and algorithms, and collaborates across autonomy engineering teams to deliver production autonomous systems.

Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and iterate on the mission planner, behavior planner, and motion planner for autonomous ground support equipment operating in airport airside environments
• Drive key technical decisions across the planning stack — selecting algorithms, defining interfaces, and establishing the architecture that the team builds on
• Prototype and evaluate new planning approaches (e.g., optimization-based methods, search-based planners, learning-augmented pipelines) and bring the best ideas to production
• Collaborate cross-functionally with perception, controls, localization, and systems engineering teams to deliver an integrated autonomous driving system
• Establish and promote best practices in software development, functional safety, and systems engineering as they apply to the planning domain
• Mentor other engineers through technical guidance, code review, and design discussions

Requirements:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Math, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Physics, or a related field
• Extensive hands-on experience designing and implementing planning modules for autonomous systems shipped to production or deployed in real-world operations
• Strong programming skills in C++ (preferred) or Python, and experience with Linux-based operating systems
• Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous technical problems and drive them to well-architected solutions independently
• Excellent communication skills, proactiveness, and a strong sense of ownership
• MS or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field
• Mastery of Modern C++ (14 and beyond) and safety-critical coding practices (e.g., MISRA, ISO 26262)
• 5+ years of industry experience in planning for robotic ground vehicles
• In-depth understanding of DDS frameworks like ROS/ROS2 or other networking middleware
• Experience in startup environments, demonstrating adaptability to rapidly changing priorities