Software Engineer (Motion Planning, Fallback Stack)

Join Applied, a leading company in the autonomy industry. As a Motion Planning Engineer on the Fallback Stack team, you will design and implement safety-critical planning systems for autonomous vehicles. This role focuses on classical motion planning and predictable behavior, rather than deep learning-driven planning. You will collaborate closely with various teams and contribute to a reusable fallback platform used across multiple autonomy programs. Enjoy a range of benefits, including health insurance, a fitness stipend, a 401(k) match, a learning stipend, parental leave, and on-site meals and snacks.

• Design and implement classical or ML motion planners for fallback and minimal-risk maneuvers, ensuring reliable operation under degraded perception and system faults.
• Define and execute safe, deterministic vehicle motions such as controlled slow-downs, pull-overs, and safe stops, using large-scale simulation and real-world data for evaluation.
• Collaborate closely with behavior prediction, perception, controls, safety, and remote assistance teams to contribute to a reusable fallback platform used across autonomy programs.
• Strong systems thinking and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Experience building deterministic, safety-critical planning systems
• Proficiency in C++ and experience working in real-time systems
• A data-driven mindset for large-scale evaluation, debugging, and tuning of planning behavior
• Strong foundation in robotic motion planning algorithms and trajectory generation (optimization-, search-, or rule-based)
• 5+ years of experience in motion planning for autonomous vehicles or robotics
• Experience designing minimal-risk maneuvers (MRM) or emergency handling behaviors
• Experience using ML techniques for parameter tuning, calibration, or offline optimization
• Familiarity with AV safety concepts, ODD constraints, or safety-case-driven development
• Experience working with degraded sensors, uncertainty, or human-in-the-loop systemsBackground in simulation frameworks or large-scale log analysis
• Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles