Motional · 5 hours ago
Principal Engineer, Behavior Understanding and Evaluation
Las Vegas, NV
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$175K/yr - $234K/yr
7+ years expMotional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. They are seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the design and assessment of autonomous vehicle behavior, utilizing data-driven techniques and collaborating with cross-functional teams to enhance product performance and safety.
AutomotiveAutonomous VehiclesFleet ManagementInformation TechnologySoftware
Responsibilities
Decompose AV operational design domain (ODD) into AV capabilities
Define precise atomic system and subsystem behaviors and interfaces required to realize these capabilities
Collaborate extensively with development teams (Autonomy, Infrastructure, Cloud Applications) to drive the design and implementation of new features that enable defined AV capabilities and enhance the overall product experience
Strategically plan and execute system-level testing campaigns. This includes leveraging advanced simulation tools and coordinating tests on closed course tracks and proving grounds to ensure the system meets functional and performance requirements
Effectively utilize existing metrics and propose new metrics to evaluate AV performance via simulation and on-road testing modalities
Pioneer the definition and implementation of key evaluation metrics and reward functions, driving autonomy performance across safety, comfort, and assertiveness
Leverage a combination of learned methods and metrics along with classical metrics to stretch the horizon of performance evaluation
Characterize the performance target against parameters used to define AV capabilities to provide nuance in performance evaluation
Deliver strategic insights and recommendations based on AV capability testing by building meaningful visualizations
Develop and maintain comprehensive dashboards and reporting tools. Distill on-road performance data into actionable feedback for engineering teams and create high-level, insightful summaries for executive leadership
Focus on automating simulation result analysis processes and gaps, removing manual processes where applicable
Partner cross-functionally with Behaviors, Actions, Simulation, System Engineering, Research, and other Onboard/Offboard Software Teams on evaluation strategies
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree and 7+ years of experience in one of Systems Eng, Data Science, Statistics or Computer Science with some form of experience in rest of the domains
At least 5 years of experience in leading and scaling data driven evaluation of autonomous driving behavior or similar safety critical emerging technology
Proven technical experience in establishing and executing evaluation strategies
A strong foundation in scientific and statistical methodologies
Fluency in SQL or similar query languages
Fluency in data visualization techniques
Fluency in Python
Proficiency in crafting data-driven reports and technical strategy documents for executive decision-making
Excellent interpersonal skills to build relationships with other teams
Excellent communication skills; effective in communicating complex concepts and driving resolutions
Self-starter who is motivated to set and achieve goals and takes initiative to drive ambiguous tasks/projects to completion
Preferred
Masters degree in Data Science or Computer Science
Experience in mentoring and leadership development
Experience collaborating in an agile development environment
A background in shaping product roadmaps
Familiarity with Reinforcement Learning (RL) with Human Feedback
Specialized expertise in creating expansive datasets
Experience collaborating in an agile development environment
Working with a global workforce that spans multiple timezones
Benefits
Medical
Dental
Vision
401k with a company match
Health saving accounts
Life insurance
Pet insurance
And more
Company
Motional
Motional offers an autonomous driving platform for robotaxi providers, fleet operators, and automotive manufacturers.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Motional has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (48)
2024 (111)
2023 (59)
2022 (110)
2021 (100)
2020 (7)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
unknown2024-05-03Acquired
2024-03-15Seed
Leadership Team
Laura Major
President and CEO
Balajee Kannan
Vice President, Autonomy
Recent News
2025-12-19
2025-11-13
2025-11-11
Company data provided by crunchbase