Applied Intuition
Software Engineer - Motion Planning (Fallback Stack)
About this role
Applied Intuition seeks a Motion Planning Engineer to design deterministic, safety-critical planning systems for autonomous vehicles during autonomy degradation or uncertainty. You'll focus on classical motion planning algorithms, large-scale simulation evaluation, and fallback behaviors rather than deep learning approaches, working across trucking and autonomy programs.
What you'll do
- Design and implement classical or ML-based motion planners for fallback and minimal-risk maneuvers
- Build planners that operate reliably under degraded perception, partial observability, and system faults
- Define and execute safe, deterministic vehicle motions such as controlled slow-downs, pull-overs, and safe stops
- Develop metrics, analysis tools, and dashboards to evaluate planner performance at scale using simulation and real-world data
- Collaborate with behavior prediction, perception, controls, safety, and remote assistance teams
- Contribute to a reusable fallback platform used across multiple autonomy programs
What they're looking for
- Motion planning algorithms and trajectory generation (optimization, search, or rule-based approaches)
- C++ and real-time systems programming
- Deterministic, safety-critical system design
- Large-scale data analysis and debugging
- Systems thinking and cross-functional collaboration
- Simulation frameworks and log analysis
- ML techniques for parameter tuning and calibration
- AV safety concepts and ODD constraints
Benefits
- Base salary, equity (options and/or RSUs), and comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance
- 401k retirement benefits with employer match
- Learning and wellness stipends
- Paid time off
- Flexible work arrangement with optional remote work and schedule flexibility
- Exposure to industry best practices in a fast-moving autonomy company
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Applied Intuition
Applied Intuition builds autonomous vehicle and defense systems software, including motion planning algorithms, simulation infrastructure, and autonomy integration platforms for aerial and ground platforms. The company is hiring for security engineers, robotics/autonomy software engineers, hardware-in-the-loop specialists, and IT operations professionals to support its growing physical AI operations.
- Website
- appliedintuition.com
Likely interview questions
- Walk us through a motion planning algorithm you've implemented for autonomous vehicles. What were the key design decisions, and how did you handle real-time constraints?
- Describe your experience building safety-critical planning systems. How do you ensure deterministic behavior and validate safety properties?