Job description

Who we are Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation. The company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations. About the role We are seeking senior or staff software engineers to join our planning team to build motion planning and decision-making systems and help mature new products all the way through to production. Our planning team calculates safe paths for the autonomous vehicle to follow using mapping data, localization data, waypoints, and predicted actors around the vehicle. Your contribution will improve planning for emergency situations and planning for complicated maneuvers such as loading dock access and variable lane changes. This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office! What you'll do Design, implement, and optimize the motion planning stack for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe, comfortable, and efficient driving in diverse real-world environments. Develop lattice-based planners, sampling-based planners, and optimization-based methods for generating dynamically feasible, collision-free trajectories. Integrate constraints from perception, prediction, and control to generate context-aware motion plans under uncertainty. Collaborate cross-functionally with behavior planning, control, and mapping teams to ensure robust and consistent planning behavior. Optimize and maintain C++-based infrastructure for trajectory generation, evaluation, and deployment in real-time onboard systems. Analyze closed-loop simulation and on-road performance; identify and resolve failure cases involving traffic interactions, occlusions, or dynamic obstacles. What we're looking for Ph.D. with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years of experience in robotics, motion planning, or autonomous systems. Deep expertise in at least two of the following: lattice-based planning, trajectory optimization, model predictive control, or search-based planning. Strong proficiency in C++, with experience in production-quality code for real-time or safety-critical systems. Solid understanding of vehicle dynamics, control interfaces, and motion feasibility constraints. Experience with simulation tools and debugging motion planner behavior in realistic driving environments. Knowledge of diffusion models and/or Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models is a strong plus. Excellent analytical and system-level debugging skills; strong communication and cross-functional collaboration capabilities. Salary Range - $180,000- $260,000 More about Gatik Founded in 2017 by experts in autonomous vehicle technology, Gatik has rapidly expanded its presence to Mountain View, Dallas-Fort Worth, Arkansas, and Toronto. As the first and only company to achieve fully driverless middle-mile commercial deliveries, Gatik holds a unique and defensible position in the AV industry, with a clear trajectory toward sustainable growth and profitability. We have delivered complete, proprietary AV technology - an integration of software and hardware - to enable earlier successes for our clients in constrained Level 4 autonomy. By choosing the middle mile – with defined point-to-point delivery, we have simplified some of the more complex AV challenges, enabling us to achieve full autonomy ahead of competitors. Given extensive knowledge of Gatik’s well-defined, fixed route ODDs and hybrid architecture, we are able to hyper-optimize our models with exponentially less data, establish gate-keeping mechanisms to maintain explainability, and ensure continued safety of the system for unmanned operations. Visit us at Gatik for more company information and Careers at Gatik for more open roles. Notable News Bloomberg: Autonomous Trucking Firm Gatik Inks Contracts Worth $600 Million Forbes: Hundreds’ Of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For U.S. Roads Forbes: Gatik And Loblaw Announce Largest Commercial Deployment Of AV Trucks Forbes: Forget robotaxis. Upstart Gatik sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs Tech Brew: Gatik AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry Business Wire: Gatik Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework Auto Futures: Autonomous Trucking Group Gatik Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS Automotive News: Gatik foresees hundreds of self-driving trucks on road soon, and that's just the beginning Forbes: Isuzu And Gatik Go All In To Scale Up Driverless Freight Services Bloomberg: Autonomous Vehicle Startup Takes Off by Picking Off Easier Routes Reuters: Driverless vehicles on limited routes bump along despite US robotaxi scrutiny Taking care of our team At Gatik, we connect people of extraordinary talent and experience to an opportunity to create a more resilient supply chain and contribute to our environment’s sustainability. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives yet united by a bold vision and shared commitment to our values. Our culture emphasizes the importance of collaboration, respect and agility. We at Gatik strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels they have opportunities to succeed and grow because we know that together we can do great things. We are committed to an inclusive and diverse team. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status or any legally protected status. E-Verify Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Gatik participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program

Requirements

Must-haves

This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office!
Design, implement, and optimize the motion planning stack for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe, comfortable, and efficient driving in diverse real-world environments.
Develop lattice-based planners, sampling-based planners, and optimization-based methods for generating dynamically feasible, collision-free trajectories.
Integrate constraints from perception, prediction, and control to generate context-aware motion plans under uncertainty.
Collaborate cross-functionally with behavior planning, control, and mapping teams to ensure robust and consistent planning behavior.
Optimize and maintain C++-based infrastructure for trajectory generation, evaluation, and deployment in real-time onboard systems.
Analyze closed-loop simulation and on-road performance; identify and resolve failure cases involving traffic interactions, occlusions, or dynamic obstacles.
Ph.D. with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years of experience in robotics, motion planning, or autonomous systems.
Deep expertise in at least two of the following: lattice-based planning, trajectory optimization, model predictive control, or search-based planning.
Strong proficiency in C++, with experience in production-quality code for real-time or safety-critical systems.
Solid understanding of vehicle dynamics, control interfaces, and motion feasibility constraints.
Experience with simulation tools and debugging motion planner behavior in realistic driving environments.
Knowledge of diffusion models and/or Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models is a strong plus.
Excellent analytical and system-level debugging skills; strong communication and cross-functional collaboration capabilities.
More about Gatik
Visit us at Gatik for more company information and Careers at Gatik for more open roles.
Notable News
Bloomberg: Autonomous Trucking Firm Gatik Inks Contracts Worth $600 Million
Forbes: Hundreds’ Of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For U.S. Roads
Forbes: Gatik And Loblaw Announce Largest Commercial Deployment Of AV Trucks
Forbes: Forget robotaxis. Upstart Gatik sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs
Tech Brew: Gatik AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry
Business Wire: Gatik Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework
Auto Futures: Autonomous Trucking Group Gatik Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS

Nice-to-haves

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aigo

Platform: greenhouse
Effort: quick

Benefits

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