Software Engineer, Decision Making & Path Planning

Founded in 2016 in Silicon Valley, Pony.ai is a global leader in autonomous mobility, pioneering technologies and services across Robotaxi, Robotruck, and Personally Owned Vehicles (POV) business units. Recognized as a top innovator—ranking #10 on CNBC’s 2022 Disruptor list and #12 on the 2023 XPRIZE/Bessemer Venture Partners "XB100"—Pony.ai has accumulated nearly 21 million miles of autonomous driving globally and went public on NASDAQ in November 2024.

About the role

The team determines how autonomous vehicles navigate based on real-time traffic conditions, including roads, surrounding environments, other vehicles, and pedestrians. This is one of the most core teams in autonomous driving.

• Architecture design, algorithm, and system development for high-performance and highly reliable L4 Autonomous Driving Planning algorithms
• Optimizing and providing safety fallbacks for end-to-end model outputs. Through post-processing, ensure vehicle behavior is safe and controllable, realizing an HD-map-independent autonomous driving system that satisfies L4 capabilities and requirements
• Designing and developing a redundant system that satisfies L4 capabilities and requirements using lower compute power, select sensors, and end-to-end technology
• Architecture design and system development for road-test big data analysis and processing
• Simulation platform development, using massive road-test data to make the simulation platform better align with real-world road test scenarios

Requirements

• BS in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience
• General software engineering experience, proficient in at least one mainstream programming language (such as C, C++, Python, or Java) and familiar with common data structures and algorithms
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Excellent problem transformation and modeling capabilities, with creative thinking to solve challenging problems that haven't been resolved industry-wide

Preferred Qualifications

• MS in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, or similar technical field of study
• General software engineering experience solving motion planning or related robotics problems

Pay

Base Salary Range: $120,000 - $200,000 Annually. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on qualifications, skills, competencies, experience, and location.

Benefits

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan (Traditional and Roth 401k)
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation & Public Holidays)
• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Free Food & Snacks

This role may also be eligible for bonuses/incentives and restricted stock units.