[Hiring] Principal Engineer @Motional

Role Description

Motional is a leading autonomous driving company on a mission to make driverless vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. The Systems Readiness and Performance team is the crucial bridge between software development and real-world deployment. We are responsible for driving system design, verifying and validating the autonomy stack, and defining, measuring, and validating system performance targets.

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to lead driverless readiness evaluations. In this role, you will analyze test results from commercial-grade software builds to identify, evaluate, and prioritize operational risks, collaborating closely with the safety team to define and implement necessary mitigations.

What You'll Be Doing

• Oversee the testing:
  • Evolve the system testing process with each iteration.
  • Ensure improvements or customizations are integrated during testing.
• Analyze the results:
  • Ensure correctness of results from automated tests.
  • Investigate and reconcile differing results between test modalities.
• Identify the risks:
  • Organize and identify risks from test analysis.
  • Communicate risks to stakeholders, including company leadership.
• Collaborate cross-functionally:
  • Work with developers to understand root causes of issues.
  • Communicate issues to stakeholders based on severity.
• Autonomy Roadmapping:
  • Support maintaining the autonomy development roadmap.
  • Improve performance within existing ODD while expanding into new ones.
• Create and maintain tooling:
  • Establish and evolve tooling for data analysis.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related field; a Master's degree is preferred.
• 7+ years of engineering experience; experience with an ADAS or automated driving system is preferred.
• Strong understanding of modern software development principles and production best practices.
• Experience with database querying and visualization such as SQL, Looker.
• Experience with agentic based software development and data analysis.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, particularly in complex system performance evaluation.
• Proficient with Git and standard version control workflows.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Proven ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to data quality.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, agile, CI/CD environment.

Requirements

• Physical Demands:
  • Frequently required to sit, talk, or hear.
  • Occasionally required to stand, walk, and use hands.
  • Must occasionally lift and move up to 50 pounds.
• Travel Requirements (up to 20%):
  • Expected to travel for 1-2 weeks each quarter visiting testing sites.
• Working Environment:
  • Regularly exposed to mechanical and computer parts.
  • Occasionally exposed to fumes and/or airborne particles.
  • Noise level in the environment is low to moderate.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision insurance.
• 401k with a company match.
• Health savings accounts.
• Life insurance.
• Pet insurance.
• Additional forms of compensation such as bonuses or company equity.