Staff Software Engineer, Aurora
$189-302k
+ Bonus & equity
Office located in Mountain View, CA
Self-driving technology company
Open for applications
Self-driving technology company
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$189-302k
+ Bonus & equity
Office located in Mountain View, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.
Role
Who you are
- Good development skills in C++, including modern C++ (11, 14, 17, 20)
- Good sense of systems and data oriented design
- Understanding of common software performance issues and design tradeoffs
- Domain experience in simulation, motion planning, localization, controls, or other areas of robotics
- BS or higher degree in robotics, computer science, software development, mathematics, or similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience
- 5+ years of industry experience designing and programming C++ software
- 5+ years of experience in autonomous vehicles, simulation, robotics, motion planning, localization, controls, computer vision or machine learning
Desirable
- 10+ years of industry experience designing and programming C++ software
- Good development skills in Python
- Knowledge of linear algebra, computational geometry, or numerical methods
- Excellent communication and people engagement skills
- Mindset for ownership, growth, and a bias for progress
- Customer orientation
- Experience with rigid body simulation
- Experience with automotive dynamics
- Experience with Lie groups (modern geometry)
- Experience at an autonomous vehicle company
- Experience designing domain specific languages (DSLs)
- Experience with procedurally generated game or video content
- Experience with machine learning (especially modern ML / transformers) applied to game or video content
- Experience with labeling pipelines and label quality for computer vision, perception, or machine learning applications
- Experience with classical machine learning (ML) algorithms
- Experience writing localization or runtime mapping (i.e. simultaneous localization and mapping, SLAM) software
What the job involves
- We’re searching for a Staff level or higher Software Engineer to work with the Core-Simulator team
- The team empowers Aurorans to test, train, and evaluate the Aurora Driver in simulation
- The Core Simulator team is composed of simulation domain and software engineering experts working towards the goal of enabling quick and thorough evaluation of motion planning, control, localization and autonomy system level software
- The team is responsible for the primary simulation engine and offline testing framework. They build models for subsystems of the autonomy stack, models for the physical world, and tooling to generate complex scenarios
- They build the technology for producing realistic virtual interactions at scale, modeling the physics and behaviors of agents in the world, and gaining and presenting insights about our rich simulation data
- The team's goal is to enable rapid development and validation of the autonomy stack through comprehensive offline analysis
- Develop software in standard C++17 and Python, using modern best practices. This is a hands-on software development role
- Contributing to engineering best practices on a large and complex code base
- Optionally manage a small number of direct reports
- Have an opportunity to tackle end-to-end simulation and autonomy behavior evaluation challenges across various areas of the autonomy system
- Lead, design, and develop critical simulation and offline testing engines and tools
- Create and extend software for world entities, adaptive behavior, pathfinding, road networks, computational mathematics, spatial queries, collision detection, vehicle control, vehicle dynamics, etc
- Example projects that a candidate may contribute to include:
- Accelerating our efforts to automatically generate simulation scenarios, procedurally and data inspired, at massive scale, using analytical or learned techniques
- Accelerating our efforts to automatically evaluate autonomy behavior, with high precision, at massive scale. Drive quality-at-scale efforts for autonomy-behavior labels
- Contributing to modeling real world errors in, and testing closed-loop interactions between, planning, localization, mapping, and control subsystems in simulation
Our take
In spite of emerging from stealth mode in 2018, Aurora is making strong waves in the flurry of startups racing to develop fully autonomous vehicles. Aurora’s hardware and software developments have focused historically on self-driving trucks, which it expects to launch commercially in 2024.
It recently named Ossa Fisher as its new President, who will focus on scaling operations ahead of this commercial launch. Passenger cars and associated services are expected to roll out following this launch. However, the self-driving industry is riddled with unmet deadlines, cash shortfalls, and tough technological challenges.
To remain competitive with deep-pocket industry giants like Tesla and Google’s Waymo, the company continues to land substantial backing from the likes of Sequoia Capital, accelerating its post-IPO growth. The pedigree of its founders may well continue to win over investor confidence. It boasts leading prior positions in the self-driving divisions of Tesla, Uber, and Google.
Steph
Company Specialist
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Dec 2020
$400m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Feb 2019
$600m
SERIES B
Total funding: $1.1bn
Company benefits
- Choice of regional HMO options, PPO options, and high deductible plans, with the option to contribute to a health savings account (HSA). If you choose a high deductible health plan, Aurora will make employer contributions to your HSA
- Comprehensive dental coverage and access to a nationwide provider network
- Coverage for vision exams, glasses, contacts, discounts for LASIK, and other vision services through a nationwide provider network
- In-office lunches, snacks, and drinks available
- GymPass offers on-demand virtual classes (fitness, yoga, strength, and more), well-being coaching, and budget management. Discount on nationwide gym memberships
- Headspace offers access to guided sessions that focus on everything from stress to relationships, anxiety, and sleep
- SoFi. Refinance your home, student and personal loans
- Fetch offers discounts on pet insurance
- PerkSpot offers discounts on vacations, car rentals, and entertainment
- Access support services to help with your family planning journey including fertility care, adoption, and surrogacy. Reimbursement of $20,000 lifetime benefit
- Save for your future with Aurora’s 401(k) Plan. Pre-tax and Roth contribution options are available
- 24/7 access to online resources and unlimited phone consultations for stress, grief counseling, depression, and relationship conflicts (personal and professional), and limited in-person sessions
- Set aside pre-tax money to pay for qualified transit and commuter benefits
- Cigna travel accident insurance provided for business travel
- LinkedIn Learning is an e-learning resource to support professional development. Aurora Academy is an internal learning and development program designed to up-level our team by teaching skills that are essential to Aurora’s mission
- Modern Health is a mental wellness benefit that includes 14 sessions with a certified coach and 12 sessions with a therapist, if needed. Unlimited access to live provider- lead community circles, digital mediation, and more
- Flexible/reasonable vacation for salaried employees; accrual of 20 vacation days per year for non-exempt employees, 11 paid company holidays per year, and reasonable sick time to stay home, rest, and get better
- Network of employee-led groups that represent Aurorans, organized by cultural identity or collaborative purpose
- Aurora provides all new parents and caregivers 18 weeks of coordinated pay and time off for the birth or placement of a child. Up to 4 weeks of paid medical leave for your own personal illness or injury, or to care for a sick family member
- Set aside pre-tax money to pay for healthcare and dependent daycare expenses using FSA plans
- Company-paid premiums for life insurance (2x salary up to $500,000). Voluntary life & AD&D coverage for you and your dependents is available. Short-term disability benefits are 60% weekly benefit up to a max of $2,500 after a short waiting period. Long-term disability benefits are 60% of monthly salary to $10,000 after a waiting period. Option to enroll in voluntary life/AD&D insurance
- 24/7 access to Unum’s worldwide emergency travel assistance services for personal travel
Company values
- Operate with integrity - We do the right thing. We are thoughtful and use good judgment. We always keep the best interest of our people and our mission at the forefront of how we work
- Focus for impact - We create space to solve problems that matter. We don’t have time for distractions, so we work with urgency and focus on the work that will accelerate our progress towards our mission and strengthen our company
- No jerks - We work from the assumption that people are good, fair, and honest and that the intention behind their actions is positive. We are intentional in how we communicate and interact, and we hold each other accountable
- Celebrate our diversity - Inviting and including diverse perspectives and experiences make us stronger as a team and help us better represent the world we live in. We are building a technology and a company to serve all people and all communities
- Rise to the occasion - We’re charting a path that is challenging, yet filled with an incredible opportunity to impact generations to come. This is not an easy task — it takes resilience, hard work and dedication. Embracing the hard stuff energizes and inspires us to continue. We rally to deliver on our commitments to our partners and each other
- Win together - We are a stronger team when we elevate our unique strengths in service of our common goals. We thrive on open and honest communication to create an environment of mutual accountability, understanding, achievement, and respect
Company HQ
Mountain View, CA
Articles
Leadership
Chris Urmson
(CEO)They have a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon, and worked as a robotics research scientist at SAIC. They were CTO of Self-Driving Cars at Google.
Sterling Anderson
(CPO)They received a PhD in Robotics from MIT before co-founding Gimlet Systems. They were an Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Director of Autopilot Programs at Tesla.
Drew Bagnell
(Chief Scientist)They hold a Robotics PhD from Carnegie Mellon, where they are also an Associate Professor. They were Autonomy Architect and Perception Lead at Uber Advanced Technology Center. Held the position of CTO at Aurora for over 3 years.
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