Kodiak · 2 weeks ago
Applied AI Engineer - Flywheel Automation & Continuous Learning
San Francisco Bay Area
Full-time
Onsite
Mid Level
$180K/yr - $240K/yr
3+ years expKodiak Robotics, Inc. is a leader in autonomous ground transportation focused on creating a safer and more efficient future. They are seeking an Applied AI Engineer to design and build the AI Flywheel, which powers continuous learning across their fleet of autonomous trucks, ensuring that models improve with every mile driven.
Autonomous VehiclesLogisticsRoboticsSoftwareTransportation
Responsibilities
Design and implement the end-to-end AI Flywheel, platforms for training, validation, deployment, and building a robust automated system
Build and maintain multi-node distributed training pipelines using tools like PyTorch DDP, Horovod, or Ray
Develop smart data mining and active learning strategies to prioritize valuable training data from petabyte-scale logs
Automate model evaluation and selection pipelines to support rapid iteration and closed-loop deployment
Build infrastructure for seamless model image packaging, validation, and rollout across Kodiak’s autonomous fleet and AI platform
Ensure that the flywheel is reliable, reproducible, and scalable, capable of learning from millions of real-world miles
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field
3+ years of experience building production-grade ML infrastructure or model pipelines
Deep proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
Experience with distributed training and pipeline orchestration (e.g., Airflow, Kubeflow, Dagster)
Strong engineering fundamentals, debugging skills, and ability to scale systems
Passion for turning real-world data into self-improving AI systems
Preferred
Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or other sensor-rich real-world ML systems
Prior work with self-supervised learning, active learning, or large-scale data curation
Familiarity with containerization (Docker), model packaging, and deployment workflows
Comfort working in cross-functional teams with research scientists, infra engineers, and robotics experts
A mindset of ownership, experimentation, and systematic improvement
Benefits
Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife (including a medical plan with infertility benefits)
MetLife Legal Services, Identity & Fraud Protection, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Accident Insurance, & Critical Illness Insurance
Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies
Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging
Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance
Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, Rula (mental health navigation)
Fidelity 401(k)
Commuter, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA
Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)
Company
Kodiak
Endlessly adaptable. Always reliable. Through the endless demands of a world in constant motion, Kodiak helps you get the job done.
201-500 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Kodiak 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 (16)
2024 (5)
2023 (7)
2022 (3)
2020 (4)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$494.9MKey Investors
Horizon Technology FinanceAliya Capital PartnersU.S. Department of Defense
2025-12-31Post Ipo Debt· $30M
2025-09-25Post Ipo Equity· $145M
2025-09-25IPO
Leadership Team
Don Burnette
Founder & CEO
Andreas Wendel
Chief Technology Officer
Recent News
2026-01-07
2026-01-03
Company data provided by crunchbase