Motional

<div>
About the Role:
We are seeking an experienced Staff Safety Engineer to lead the definition, development, and operationalization of safety metrics and benchmarking methodologies for Level 4 autonomous vehicle (AV) and robotaxi deployment.
In this role, you will establish quantitative frameworks to measure AV safety performance across on-road testing, simulation, and external benchmarks. You will develop statistically rigorous methodologies for risk estimation, counterfactual modeling, near-miss tracking, and collision severity assessment to guide deployment and software release decisions.
Partnering across Safety Engineering, Systems Readiness &amp; Performance, Autonomy, Data Science, and Fleet Operations, you will translate complex data into actionable metrics, governance frameworks, and executive evidence to ensure safe driverless commercial launch. 
<h4>Key Responsibilities:</h4>
Safety Metrics Development:
<ul>
<li>Define, standardize, and maintain core AV safety performance indicators (SPIs), including vehicle collisions, near-misses, safety-critical interventions, traffic compliance, and surrogate safety metrics</li>
<li>Establish standardized metric definitions, exposure denominators (e.g., VMT), data quality requirements, automated calculation pipelines, and change-management governance for safety metrics.</li>
<li>Develop leading and lagging indicators to monitor safety performance across software releases, operational design domains (ODDs), and structured scenario taxonomies.</li>
<li>Develop quantitative benchmarking frameworks comparing AV safety performance against human-driving baselines, counterfactual models, public datasets (e.g., SHRP2, NASS-GES), and regulatory disclosures.</li>
<li>Evaluate comparability across operators and human drivers, accounting for exposure normalization, operating conditions, event severity levels, and reporting differences.</li>
<li>Establish scenario-based and exposure-normalized targets that provide meaningful safety criteria and align with partner/external readiness expectations.</li>
<li>Clearly communicate benchmarking assumptions, limitations, and statistical uncertainty.</li>
<li>Apply statistical inference, uncertainty quantification, Bayesian methods, and risk modeling to evaluate AV behavior and scenario-level performance.</li>
<li>Develop methods to analyze rare and high-severity events, establishing confidence intervals, sample-size requirements, and statistical evidence thresholds for release decisions.</li>
<li>Build collision severity and injury-risk models to evaluate impact dynamics, delta-V, and potential harm mitigation.</li>
<li>Connect quantitative findings to engineering investigations, safety mitigations, and release readiness assessments. </li>
</ul>
Technical Leadership:
<ul>
<li>Provide technical leadership and cross-functional alignment across Safety Case, Systems Engineering, Simulation, Data Science, and Policy teams.</li>
<li>Lead the establishment of change management procedures and governance for approval and iteration of safety metrics and benchmarking targets.</li>
<li>Communicate technical evidence, uncertainty, and safety readiness assessments effectively to internal executives, key partner stakeholders, and regulatory bodies. </li>
</ul>
Minimum Qualifications:
<ul>
<li>Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, or a related technical field.</li>
<li>8+ years of experience in safety engineering, autonomous driving evaluation, statistical modeling, simulation-based validation, or AV risk assessment.</li>
<li>Proven track record of defining quantitative safety metrics, SPIs, surrogate safety measures, and human benchmark models.</li>
<li>Proficiency in Python and SQL, with experience analyzing large-scale operational or safety-related datasets.</li>
<li>Strong expertise in statistical inference, rare-event analysis, counterfactual modeling, risk quantification, and release-readiness evaluation.</li>
<li>Proven ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives and communicate complex findings clearly. </li>
</ul>
Preferred Qualifications:
<ul>
<li>Master's or Ph.D. in a relevant technical or quantitative discipline.</li>
<li>Experience with Level 4 autonomous driving, robotaxi operations, or other safety-critical systems.</li>
<li>Experience benchmarking AV safety using public reports, regulatory disclosures, industry datasets, or published research.</li>
<li>Familiarity with scenario taxonomies, safety case frameworks, and applicable industry standards such as UL 4600, ISO 21448 (SOTIF), ISO 8800, SAE J3237, and ISO 26262.</li>
<li>Experience with collision severity modeling, injury-risk prediction, or human benchmark datasets</li>
</ul>
#LI-LB1
</div><div><div><div>The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 
Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more.</div><div>Salary Range</div><div>$144,000—$191,250 USD</div></div></div><div>Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.  
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit  <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3300142-1&amp;h=1642745316&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3253528-1%26h%3D3781125006%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fc212.net%252Fc%252Flink%252F%253Ft%253D0%2526l%253Den%2526o%253D3089636-1%2526h%253D3468778127%2526u%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fc212.net%25252Fc%25252Flink%25252F%25253Ft%25253D0%252526l%25253Den%252526o%25253D2881693-1%252526h%25253D646020682%252526u%25253Dhttps%2525253A%2525252F%2525252Furldefense.com%2525252Fv3%2525252F__http%2525253A%2525252Fwww.motional.com%2525252F__%2525253B!!KT8c38mO!j78LjnhAm2VK7Fu23VO6KlwqDXvVTQFMzmyzieKQqZDQksh2tpWEseK4to8eKzwsEwI%25252524%252526a%25253Dwww.Motional.com%2526a%253Dwww.Motional.com%26a%3Dwww.Motional.com&amp;a=www.Motional.com" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">www.Motional.com</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/motionaldrive" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/67123512/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/motionaldrive/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr__mGPkBb-KMoYWbSGuA9w" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.</div>

Staff Safety Engineer, Safety Metrics and Benchmarking

Motional is a leading autonomous driving company on a mission to make driverless vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. Backed by Hyundai Motor Group, Motional is at the forefront of the physical AI revolution. Motional isn’t just building first-of-its-kind technology; we are transforming transportation to create safer streets and more sustainable mobility options.
The Systems Readiness and Performance team is the crucial bridge between software development and real-world deployment. We are responsible for driving system design, for verifying and validating the autonomy stack, and for defining, measuring, and validating system performance targets. We work closely with stakeholders in autonomy, infrastructure, and operations to build the definitive safety case for the commercial launch of our fully driverless IONIQ 5 robotaxis in Las Vegas later this year. 
Mission Summary:
We are seeking a highly skilled Software Engineer to play a critical role in evaluating and improving the performance of our autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. This engineer will be responsible for developing and implementing metrics and software tools, primarily using Python, to effectively measure, analyze, and report on the performance of our AV systems. Their work will directly contribute to accelerating the development of safe and reliable autonomous technologies by transforming complex AV data into actionable insights for the organization. 
What You'll Be Doing:
<ul>
<li>Drive Technical Strategy &amp; Roadmap: Define a long-term, high-impact technical roadmap for the team, working closely with leadership and product managers to optimize Engineering traction and prioritize deliverables that de-risk the deployment of our AV systems.</li>
<li>Design AV Performance Analysis Pipelines: Define, design, and implement key pipelines to extract on-road and  simulated events and evaluate autonomous vehicle performance (e.g., lane change capability, oscillation/braking metrics, VRU emergence from occlusion).</li>
<li>Develop Metrics Software and AI-Powered Tools: Leverage strong Python skills to develop frameworks, AI-powered tools, and systems for calculating, aggregating, and visualizing AV performance metrics from large datasets.</li>
<li>Collaborate &amp; Influence Cross-Functionally: Proactively partner across systems, software, AI, controls, simulation, and validation teams to break down silos, gain cross-functional alignment, and drive improvements in critical systems like Perception, Prediction, and Planning.</li>
<li>Ensure Exceptional Data Quality &amp; Reliability: Hold yourself and the team accountable to a high bar for quality and reliability. Identify major areas of the codebase that need attention, anticipate impacts to system reliability, and lead solutions to ensure the accuracy and integrity of data used for performance evaluation.</li>
<li>Document and Share Knowledge: Create clear documentation for metrics and analysis tools, and share best practices with the engineering team.</li>
<li>Advance Technical Expertise: Proactively evaluate and integrate new technologies and methodologies relevant to autonomous vehicles and software engineering.</li>
<li>Provide Technical Thought Leadership &amp; Mentorship: Act as a role model and mentor to Senior Engineers and team members. Create comprehensive documentation, lead design and architectural reviews, and share knowledge through internal tech talks to elevate Motional's engineering culture. </li>
</ul>
What We're Looking For:
<ul>
<li>5+ years of software engineering experience and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field; a Master's degree is a plus.</li>
<li>Expert-level proficiency in Python and a strong understanding of modern software development principles and best practices.</li>
<li>Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, particularly in the context of complex system performance evaluation and data analysis.</li>
<li>Proficient with Git and standard version control workflows.</li>
<li>Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to effectively communicate technical concepts and results to diverse audiences (engineers, product managers, leadership).</li>
<li>Proven ability to work both independently and effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.</li>
<li>Strong attention to detail and a commitment to data quality, accuracy, and rigorous testing.</li>
<li>Comfortable working in a fast-paced, agile, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) environment. </li>
</ul>
Bonus Points (not required):
<ul>
<li>Experience working in software development of  autonomous vehicles, or robotics  </li>
<li>Experience in perception, prediction, planning, or controls </li>
<li>Experience with Python data analysis &amp;  visualization tools (e.g., Pandas, matplotlib, seaborn Jupyter notebooks. )for early data analysis &amp; validation </li>
<li>Knowledge of statistical analysis and machine learning techniques relevant to performance evaluation. </li>
</ul>
Success Metrics:
<ul>
<li>Drive quarterly and multi-quarter success for team goals.</li>
<li>Successful design and implementation of key autonomous vehicle performance metrics.</li>
<li>Improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of AV performance evaluation processes.</li>
<li>Timely and accurate delivery of data and insights to AV development teams.</li>
<li>Contribution to the overall advancement and safety of our autonomous vehicle technology. </li>
</ul>
Physical Demands:
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, talk, or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand and at times for long periods; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and move up to 50 pounds.
 
Travel Requirements (greater than 20%):
Expected to travel for 1-2 weeks each quarter visiting all of our testing sites - mostly to LV, but also domestically as needed for the business. 
Working Environment:
The work environment characteristics described here represent those a team member encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The team member is regularly exposed to mechanical and computer parts. The team member is occasionally exposed to fumes and/or airborne particlesThe noise level in the environment is low to moderate. 
Motional AD LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and we welcome all qualified applicants.  All applicants will receive impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic data, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or other legally protected status.  Motional AD LLC is a Drug-free workplace.
#LI-KS1<div><div><div>The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 
Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. </div><div>Salary Range</div><div>$172,000—$229,000 USD</div></div></div><div>Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.  
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit  <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3300142-1&amp;h=1642745316&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3253528-1%26h%3D3781125006%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fc212.net%252Fc%252Flink%252F%253Ft%253D0%2526l%253Den%2526o%253D3089636-1%2526h%253D3468778127%2526u%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fc212.net%25252Fc%25252Flink%25252F%25253Ft%25253D0%252526l%25253Den%252526o%25253D2881693-1%252526h%25253D646020682%252526u%25253Dhttps%2525253A%2525252F%2525252Furldefense.com%2525252Fv3%2525252F__http%2525253A%2525252Fwww.motional.com%2525252F__%2525253B!!KT8c38mO!j78LjnhAm2VK7Fu23VO6KlwqDXvVTQFMzmyzieKQqZDQksh2tpWEseK4to8eKzwsEwI%25252524%252526a%25253Dwww.Motional.com%2526a%253Dwww.Motional.com%26a%3Dwww.Motional.com&amp;a=www.Motional.com" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">www.Motional.com</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/motionaldrive" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/67123512/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/motionaldrive/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr__mGPkBb-KMoYWbSGuA9w" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.</div>

Staff Software Engineer, Autonomous Vehicle Performance Metrics

What You’ll Do:
<ul>
<li>Develop computer vision and machine learning solutions for autonomous vehicle perception systems for object and signal recognition (ex. emergency vehicles, school buses, authority figures, and traffic-light states).</li>
<li>Design, develop, implement and debug features in production perception software using Python and C++.</li>
<li>Integrate perception algorithms and trained machine learning models with on-car software.</li>
<li>Architect software workflows for preparing data from multiple sensors (e.g., cameras, LiDAR) and training machine learning models.</li>
<li>Design evaluation processes and custom testing tools to measure prediction consistency, processing speed, and overall system safety.</li>
<li>Connect/drive project-level impact through technology solutions.</li>
<li>Design, develop, implement, and fix features in codebase.</li>
<li>Formulate problems, architect solutions, and design processes.</li>
<li>Train and deploy new AI models.</li>
<li>Analyze model performance and identify improvements.</li>
<li>Research/evaluate emerging technologies to enhance AI models.</li>
<li>Prototype, evaluate, implement, and iterate on solutions.</li>
</ul>
Boston, MA headquarters; telecommuting permitted.
 
What You Bring:
<ul>
<li>Requires Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related technical field</li>
<li>Two years of industry experience in automotive industry software development.</li>
<li>Experience must include:</li>
<ul>
<li>production-level software development,</li>
<li>model deployment,</li>
<li>integration and validation for robotics,</li>
<li>testing/debugging algorithms,</li>
<li>machine learning applications,</li>
<li>Python,</li>
<li>C++,</li>
<li>PyTorch,</li>
<li>GPU training,</li>
<li>acceleration and inference optimization,</li>
<li>TensorRT/CUDA,</li>
<li>CI/CD pipelines, and</li>
<li>Git.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
 
This position is eligible for employee referral program. 
Salary Range: $165,000 to $197,698 per year
Ref Job No. N322<div><div><div>The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 
Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. </div><div>Salary Range</div><div>$165,000—$197,698 USD</div></div></div><div>Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.  
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit  <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3300142-1&amp;h=1642745316&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3253528-1%26h%3D3781125006%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fc212.net%252Fc%252Flink%252F%253Ft%253D0%2526l%253Den%2526o%253D3089636-1%2526h%253D3468778127%2526u%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fc212.net%25252Fc%25252Flink%25252F%25253Ft%25253D0%252526l%25253Den%252526o%25253D2881693-1%252526h%25253D646020682%252526u%25253Dhttps%2525253A%2525252F%2525252Furldefense.com%2525252Fv3%2525252F__http%2525253A%2525252Fwww.motional.com%2525252F__%2525253B!!KT8c38mO!j78LjnhAm2VK7Fu23VO6KlwqDXvVTQFMzmyzieKQqZDQksh2tpWEseK4to8eKzwsEwI%25252524%252526a%25253Dwww.Motional.com%2526a%253Dwww.Motional.com%26a%3Dwww.Motional.com&amp;a=www.Motional.com" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">www.Motional.com</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/motionaldrive" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/67123512/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/motionaldrive/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr__mGPkBb-KMoYWbSGuA9w" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.</div>

Perception Engineer

Mission Summary:
The Safety-Layer Team is responsible for ensuring the Motional Autonomous Vehicle executes appropriate dynamic trajectories in both nominal and safety-critical scenarios. This team focuses on refining upstream motion plans to guarantee compliance with safety-driven requirements, executing highly dynamic evasive maneuvers at the AV’s physical limits, and implementing system-wide safety overrides. The team pursues these goals through a process of rigorous algorithmic design, implementation, validation, analysis in simulation, and comprehensive closed-course and public road evaluation.
As the team's responsibilities are growing to support more complex scenarios and the scaling of Motional’s deployment area, we are looking for a Senior Motion Planning - Safety-Layer to help build a robust motion planning safety-layer. You will work on enabling cutting-edge capabilities for Motional’s AV, including algorithm design and documentation, software development, metrics definition, simulation implementation and evaluation, and in-vehicle testing. As part of this role, you will maintain cross-functional relationships across the organization to help understand and communicate the impacts of their work on overall AV performance. 
What you will work on:
<ul>
<li>Design, implement, and test algorithms for synthesizing trajectories and selecting trajectories across asynchronous generation sources to ensure AV behaviors adhere to safety-critical requirement specifications.</li>
<li>Develop evasive maneuver planning algorithms in conjunction with low-level control systems to safely use the full actuation capacity of Motional’s AV for collision avoidance.</li>
<li>Evaluate the role of multiple perception sensor modalities in refining the safety-layer’s identification of safety-critical scenarios.</li>
<li>Construct test/analysis tooling for isolated and system-level evaluation of safety-layer components and processes, select test parameters, and analyze test results.</li>
<li>Utilize, validate, and improve dynamic simulation environments to accelerate the design and analysis of safety-critical motion planning algorithms, including validating simulation models against real-world data.</li>
<li>Define and implement performance, comfort, and safety metrics for motion planning and safety systems, and perform quantitative analysis of fleet-wide vehicle data to validate design improvements and identify key areas of improvement.</li>
<li>Build a system-wide understanding of Motional’s autonomy stack components by supporting root-cause analysis of simulation, closed-course, and public road events from a motion planning and safety perspective.</li>
<li>Travel for in-person vehicle testing at Motional’s and our partner's deployment and test track locations, typically once every 4 to 6 months. </li>
</ul>
Desired Background:
<ul>
<li>MS, PhD preferred, in one of Control Theory / Robotics / Computer Science / Applied Math or a related field</li>
<li>3+ years of experience developing motion planning and collision avoidance related algorithms and components in an industrial setting, preferably the AV industry</li>
<li>Strong background in modern C++ programming (C++17, C++20), with an emphasis on developing high-performance and reliable systems</li>
<li>Experienced with concepts from motion planning including trajectory generation through numerical optimization and sampling-based approaches, cost and heuristic-based methods for trajectory selection, multi-modal prediction models, geometric and physics-based collision detection, time-series data processing, and data visualization</li>
<li>Familiarity with dynamic collision modeling, convex set processing, state machine logic, and multi-rate decision-making processes</li>
<li>Familiarity with agentic-based development tooling</li>
<li>Familiarity with Linux-based operating systems </li>
</ul>
Bonus Points:
<ul>
<li>General familiarity with machine learning, including supervised learning, reinforcement learning, training/test validation, etc.</li>
<li>Familiarity with vehicle dynamics modeling, including standard longitudinal/lateral vehicle dynamics models</li>
<li>Publications in Robotics/Controls or Autonomous Driving conferences/journals (IROS, ICRA, CoRL, RAL, TRO, CDC, ACC, TAC, CSL, Automatica, IV, ITSC, T-ITS)</li>
<li>Familiarity with SQL-based queries</li>
<li>Familiarity with Python</li>
<li>Familiarity with Gitlab, Bazel, VSCode / CLion</li>
<li>Familiarity with AV industry simulation tooling</li>
</ul>
#LI-BP1<div><div><div>The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 
Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. </div><div>Salary Range</div><div>$172,000—$229,000 USD</div></div></div><div>Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.  
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit  <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3300142-1&amp;h=1642745316&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3253528-1%26h%3D3781125006%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fc212.net%252Fc%252Flink%252F%253Ft%253D0%2526l%253Den%2526o%253D3089636-1%2526h%253D3468778127%2526u%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fc212.net%25252Fc%25252Flink%25252F%25253Ft%25253D0%252526l%25253Den%252526o%25253D2881693-1%252526h%25253D646020682%252526u%25253Dhttps%2525253A%2525252F%2525252Furldefense.com%2525252Fv3%2525252F__http%2525253A%2525252Fwww.motional.com%2525252F__%2525253B!!KT8c38mO!j78LjnhAm2VK7Fu23VO6KlwqDXvVTQFMzmyzieKQqZDQksh2tpWEseK4to8eKzwsEwI%25252524%252526a%25253Dwww.Motional.com%2526a%253Dwww.Motional.com%26a%3Dwww.Motional.com&amp;a=www.Motional.com" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">www.Motional.com</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/motionaldrive" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/67123512/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/motionaldrive/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr__mGPkBb-KMoYWbSGuA9w" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.</div>

Senior Motion Planning Engineer - Safety-Layer

Mission Summary:
The Systems Readiness and Performance team is the crucial bridge between software development and real-world deployment. We are responsible for driving system design, for verifying and validating the autonomy stack, and for defining, measuring, and validating system performance targets. We work closely with stakeholders in autonomy, infrastructure, and operations to build the definitive safety case for the commercial launch of our fully driverless IONIQ 5 robotaxis in Las Vegas.
Rigorous behavioral and system performance evaluation is critical to scaling our service and achieving Motional's long-term goals. We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead initiatives that improve evaluation and testing methodologies, measure the quality and trustworthiness of our evaluation portfolio, and partner with engineering teams to monitor and strengthen the health of the evaluation ecosystem. You will help ensure Motional's performance evaluation is efficient, scientifically rigorous, and aligned with our growth priorities.
In this role, you will lead development of evaluation methodologies and metrics that assess the quality and business relevance of solutions spanning on-road and off-board data. You will influence the evaluation signals software engineers rely on to validate that changes to the autonomy stack deliver intended improvements, conduct deep-dive analyses to understand bottlenecks in current methodologies, and prototype improvements in metrics, sampling strategy, and statistical inference. You will develop deep expertise in how evaluation signals inform launch and release decisions, weigh trade-offs across the evaluation portfolio, and provide actionable insights for designing launch criteria.
If you are a rigorous, collaborative data scientist with a passion for improving how autonomous systems are measured and validated at scale, we encourage you to apply. 
What You’ll Be Doing:
<ul>
<li>Lead the development of evaluation frameworks for the autonomous system, connecting technical problems to rigorous, data-driven approaches for measuring and validating performance. </li>
<li>Collaborate closely with Functional Safety and Systems Engineering teams to ensure evaluation metrics map effectively to automotive safety standards (e.g., SOTIF, ISO 21448) and launch readiness decisions.</li>
<li>Ensure evaluation metrics are reliable enough to inform safety cases and launch readiness decisions.</li>
<li>Monitor the reliability of evaluation metrics and incoming performance data over time, including detecting drift, inconsistencies, and degradation in metric definitions, to ensure the evaluation ecosystem remains accurate and trustworthy.</li>
<li>Drive our approach to performance analysis using data-backed statistical methods for simulation and on-road data.</li>
<li>Develop new statistical analysis methods to analyze AV performance data and lead by example in applying them to real problems.</li>
<li>Partner with triage operators and simulation engineers to turn raw disengagements and identified edge cases into procedural or generative scenarios, feeding them back into the simulation catalog to strengthen test coverage.</li>
<li>Use fleet and evaluation data to identify edge cases in an automated manner and coverage gaps, and partner with engineering to feed novel scenarios back into the simulation catalog and strengthen test coverage.</li>
<li>Build confidence in the evaluation framework through data-driven insights and clear communication of findings to technical leaders and stakeholders.</li>
<li>Establish correlation between on-road and simulation data to improve how we interpret and act on evaluation results.</li>
<li>Make sense of large datasets to drive insights, solve ambiguous performance questions, and communicate results effectively across teams and upward to leadership.</li>
<li>Establish a self-service model for developers to understand the impact of their changes.</li>
<li>Develop new metrics, interpret trends, and investigate anomalies in simulation and on-road data. </li>
<li>Collaborate with developers to drive action based on these results.</li>
<li>Serve as an advisor and influence collaborators across multiple teams, promote data-aware decision making, and establish best practices around the use of data.</li>
<li>Mentor and collaborate with fellow engineers and foster a positive, collaborative work environment.</li>
<li>Introduce the use of ML methods for performance evaluation where they add rigor and scale. </li>
</ul>
What You Bring:
<ul>
<li>5+ years of industry experience solving complex problems with large datasets, with a track record of framing ambiguous questions into rigorous, data-driven analyses.</li>
<li>Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Robotics, Physics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field. Master's or PhD preferred.</li>
<li>Strong problem-solving skills: ability to break down complex performance and evaluation challenges, think logically, and remove bias from how problems are defined and assessed.</li>
<li>Strong Python and SQL skills, with demonstrated experience using data analysis libraries to work with large, complex datasets.</li>
<li>Experience applying advanced statistical and ML methods to drive insights from large and complex data sets.</li>
<li>Demonstrated experience with statistical analysis, hypothesis testing, causal analysis and data analysis.</li>
<li>Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal guidance and drive projects from problem definition through to actionable results.</li>
<li>Proven communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to explain technical findings clearly to engineering partners and leadership.</li>
<li>Eager to learn new statistical and ML techniques and demonstrated willingness to teach </li>
</ul>
Bonus Points:
<ul>
<li>Experience with adversarial scenario generation and closed-loop simulation environments.</li>
<li>Experience in autonomous driving or robotics, specifically evaluating sub-systems like Perception, Prediction, or Motion Planning.</li>
<li>Familiarity with data pipelines and distributed compute (e.g., AWS) to seamlessly collaborate with our Data Engineering and MLOps partners.</li>
<li>Expertise in Machine Learning and Deep Learning.</li>
<li>Expertise in modern sequence modeling (e.g., Transformers applied to time-series or trajectory data) and probabilistic ML / uncertainty quantification for distinguishing rare-but-safe behavior from out-of-distribution failures.</li>
<li>Familiarity with automotive safety standards like ISO 26262 or ISO 21448 (SOTIF). </li>
</ul>
We encourage a hybrid schedule with in-office time at one of our locations in Boston, Pittsburgh, or Las Vegas to support collaboration, or this role can be fully remote.
#LI-KS1<div><div><div>The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 
Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. </div><div>Salary Range</div><div>$149,000—$198,500 USD</div></div></div><div>Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We’re driven by something more.
Our journey is always people first.
We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move.
Higher purpose, greater impact.
We’re creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it’s not only good for our business, it’s the right thing to do.  
Scale up, not starting up.
Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We’re driven to scale; we’re moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges.
Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit  <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3300142-1&amp;h=1642745316&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3253528-1%26h%3D3781125006%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fc212.net%252Fc%252Flink%252F%253Ft%253D0%2526l%253Den%2526o%253D3089636-1%2526h%253D3468778127%2526u%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fc212.net%25252Fc%25252Flink%25252F%25253Ft%25253D0%252526l%25253Den%252526o%25253D2881693-1%252526h%25253D646020682%252526u%25253Dhttps%2525253A%2525252F%2525252Furldefense.com%2525252Fv3%2525252F__http%2525253A%2525252Fwww.motional.com%2525252F__%2525253B!!KT8c38mO!j78LjnhAm2VK7Fu23VO6KlwqDXvVTQFMzmyzieKQqZDQksh2tpWEseK4to8eKzwsEwI%25252524%252526a%25253Dwww.Motional.com%2526a%253Dwww.Motional.com%26a%3Dwww.Motional.com&amp;a=www.Motional.com" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">www.Motional.com</a> and follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/motionaldrive" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/67123512/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/motionaldrive/" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr__mGPkBb-KMoYWbSGuA9w" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank">YouTube</a>.
Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.</div>

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