---
title: 'Lead Software Engineer – Control at Avride'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-software-engineer-control-avride-austin-h6e6rcj3pn2v'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Lead Software Engineer – Control at Avride

- **Company:** Avride
- **Location:** Austin, TX
- **Posted:** 2026-07-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/avride/jobs/4304839009

## Job description

## About the role

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer to drive the technical evolution of Avride's core Control System. This role is roughly 80% hands-on engineering and 20% technical leadership — you'll spend most of your time architecting and shipping Model Predictive Control (MPC) systems and vehicle dynamics models yourself, while also setting technical direction and unblocking a small team of 2–3 control engineers.

## What you'll do

Hands-on (~80%)

- Architect, implement, and optimize cutting-edge control systems in modern C++ (C++17/20).
- Own the design of high-precision trajectory-tracking solutions, from formulation through production deployment.
- Identify and refine dynamic vehicle parameters using real-world data.
- Profile and optimize algorithms to meet real-time performance constraints.
- Write clean, maintainable, production-quality code and set the technical bar for the codebase.
- Analyze and iterate on system performance using real-world vehicle data.

Leadership (20%)

- Provide technical direction and code/design review for a small team of 2–3 control engineers.
- Break down complex control problems into scoped workstreams and help the team sequence and prioritize them.
- Mentor engineers on MPC, optimization, and controls best practices.
- Act as the primary technical point of contact between Controls and the Planning and Hardware teams, ensuring architectural decisions stay cohesive across systems.
- Drive projects to completion, balancing team velocity with technical rigor.

## What you'll need

- 6+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of owning significant technical systems end-to-end.
- Expertise in modern C++.
- Deep understanding of algorithms, data structures, and software design patterns.
- Direct experience with optimization, MPC, and system dynamics.
- Hands-on experience with data analysis and statistical methods applied to real-world sensor/vehicle data.
- Demonstrated ability to guide the technical direction of a small team while remaining a strong individual contributor.
- Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with a focus on delivering results and driving cross-team alignment.

## Nice to have

- Prior experience formally or informally leading a small engineering team or workstream.
- Digital signal processing techniques for analyzing real-world sensor data.
- Advanced knowledge of mathematics, including optimization, probability, and mechanics, and a proven ability to translate complex theory into production-ready algorithms.
- Relevant publications, patents, or achievements in hackathons/programming contests.
- A passion for staying at the forefront of the field, actively seeking and implementing state-of-the-art ideas to push performance beyond the current horizon.

## #LI-MS1

Candidates are required to be authorized to work in the U.S. The employer is not offering relocation, sponsorship, and remote work options are not available.

Avride is an equal opportunity employer and committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities to ensure they have equal access to employment opportunities. Avride complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), if you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with the application or hiring process, or to perform the essential functions of a job, please email jobs@avride.ai.

## About Avride

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Avride is a developer of autonomous vehicle and delivery robot technology, providing self-driving taxi and last-mile delivery services in partnership with Uber.
- **Entity Type**: Private (subsidiary of Nebius Group)
- **Headquarters**: Austin, Texas, United States (additional offices in Tel Aviv, Israel; Belgrade, Serbia; Seoul, South Korea)
- **Founded**: 2020 (as a spin-off from Yandex’s self-driving car group, which began development in 2017)
- **Founders**: Originated from Yandex’s autonomous driving team; individual founders are not named publicly.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Vehicular automation, autonomous mobility, and last-mile delivery robotics.
- **Target customers**: B2B (ride-hail platforms like Uber, automotive OEMs like Hyundai), B2C (riders using robotaxis via Uber app), and enterprise (restaurants and retailers using delivery robots through Uber Eats).
- **Mission**: To make roads safer and more sustainable by deploying autonomous technology that never tires, gets distracted, or breaks rules.

## Products & Services
- **Robotaxi Service**: Autonomous taxi fleet (based on retrofitted Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles) operating in a nine-square-mile area of downtown Dallas, bookable via the Uber app. As of April 2026, Avride has 200 robotaxis in service.
- **Delivery Robots**: Sidewalk robots that travel at 8 km/h (5 mph), equipped with lidars, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors. Currently delivering Uber Eats orders in Austin, Dallas, and Jersey City. Over 600,000 deliveries completed to date.
- **Autonomous Driver Platform**: A universal driving system (hardware and software) that can be adapted to different vehicle types, including passenger cars and delivery robots, leveraging shared technology for continuous improvement.
- **Proprietary Hardware**: Custom lidars, cameras, and computational hardware designed in-house to enhance performance and redundancy.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company).
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$425M** across two rounds:
  - $50M convertible note (September 2020)
  - $375M venture round (October 2025) — 2 investors.
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Nebius Group (parent company); strategic partners include **Uber** (robotaxi and delivery integration) and **Hyundai** (robotaxi development partnership).
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount of **283 employees** (+75.4% year-over-year).
  - 13,541 LinkedIn followers (+80.3% annual growth).
  - Over 250,000 customers have used services powered by Avride technology.
  - Expanded from initial testing in Austin and Seoul to live commercial operations in Dallas, Jersey City, and South Korea.
  - NHTSA logged 37 accidents involving Avride vehicles (as of March 2026) and opened a safety probe in May 2026 — a sign of regulatory scrutiny that often accompanies scaling autonomous fleets.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proven real‑world deployment**: Operating robotaxis and delivery robots in dense urban environments across the U.S. and South Korea.
- **Unified technology stack**: The same autonomous software and hardware power both cars and delivery robots, enabling cross‑learning and faster iteration.
- **Strong partnership ecosystem**: Exclusive tie‑ups with Uber (rideshare and delivery) and Hyundai (OEM collaboration) provide immediate go‑to‑market channels.
- **In‑house hardware**: Custom sensors and compute units reduce dependency on third‑party suppliers and optimize performance for specific platforms.
- **Safety‑first philosophy**: 360‑degree perception, redundant systems, and thousands of hours of simulation and real‑world testing.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling robotaxi operations**: Expanding the Dallas service area and launching in additional U.S. cities in 2026–2027.
- **Deepening OEM partnerships**: Collaborating with Hyundai on next‑generation robotaxis.
- **Broadening delivery robot coverage**: Entering new markets with Uber Eats, including potential international expansion.
- **Growing the engineering team**: Actively hiring for roles in software, hardware, simulation, and operations (14 open positions as of mid‑2026).

## Why Work Here
- **Cutting‑edge autonomy**: Solve some of the hardest problems in perception, planning, and real‑time control for both cars and robots.
- **Large, experienced team**: Over 200 engineers, many from Yandex’s pioneering autonomous driving group, with deep domain knowledge.
- **Fast‑paced, high‑impact environment**: Work on technology used by hundreds of thousands of real customers.
- **Global presence**: Offices in Austin (HQ), Tel Aviv, Belgrade, and Seoul offer opportunities for international collaboration.
- **Culture of ownership**: Flat structure with small cross‑functional teams; engineers own features end‑to‑end.
- **Work policy**: Not explicitly stated, but roles span on‑site (operations), hybrid, and remote‑friendly positions depending on function.

## Sources
1. [avride.ai](https://www.avride.ai/)
2. [Avride About page](https://www.avride.ai/about)
3. [Avride Careers page](https://www.avride.ai/careers)
4. [Avride LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/avrideai)
5. [Avride Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avride)

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