--- title: 'Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Motion Planning at PlusAI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-machine-learning-engineer-motion-planning-plusai-santa-clara-4sa79vvqk8c2' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-15' --- # Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Motion Planning at PlusAI - **Company:** PlusAI - **Location:** Santa Clara, CA - **Compensation:** $130k–$220k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-08-27 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-15 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/plus-2/f44304e9-8bc4-45b4-bbf5-8b4fe70fc6ae ## Job description PlusAI is a Physical AI company pioneering AI-based virtual driver software for factory-built autonomous trucks. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with operations in the United States and Europe, Plus was named by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Partners including TRATON GROUP’s Scania, MAN, and International brands, Hyundai Motor Company, Iveco Group, Bosch, and DSV are working with Plus to accelerate the deployment of next-generation autonomous trucks. If you’re ready to make a huge impact and drive the future of autonomy, Plus is looking for talented individuals to join its fast-growing teams. We’re looking for a machine learning engineer to train and deploy the latest generation of ML-based planning algorithms on the extensive data we collect every day across our autonomous trucking fleet. ## Responsibilities - Develop state-of-the-art machine learning models for autonomous vehicle planning using rich map, perception, routing, and contextual sensor data. - Design and implement model architectures for trajectory generation, behavior planning, and decision making that balance accuracy, robustness, interpretability, and runtime efficiency. - Own the end-to-end machine learning lifecycle, including data curation, feature engineering, experimentation, training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement. - Design rigorous offline evaluation methodologies, validation pipelines, and metrics to measure planning quality, safety, robustness, and generalization. - Analyze model behavior, investigate failure cases, and improve performance through systematic error analysis and targeted experimentation. - Collaborate closely with runtime, perception, prediction, mapping, and systems teams to deploy scalable machine learning solutions into production. - Design validation strategies and rule-based guardrails to ensure generated trajectories are feasible, safe, and compliant with traffic rules. - Stay current with advances in machine learning, robotics, and autonomous driving, translating research innovations into production systems. - Ensure technical work complies with the company's Quality Management System (QMS), customer requirements, regulatory standards, and internal engineering processes. Required Skills - BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related field. - 4+ years of experience developing machine learning systems for robotics, autonomous driving, or other real-time decision-making systems. - Strong Python programming skills and experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch. - Strong understanding of deep learning, sequence modeling, transformers, diffusion models, or other modern ML architectures. - Experience designing datasets, experiments, validation methodologies, and metric-driven model evaluation. - Strong software engineering skills with experience developing and maintaining production-quality software. - Excellent debugging and analytical problem-solving skills, with the ability to investigate complex issues across datasets, model behavior, and production systems. - Experience analyzing edge cases, tracing failures to their root cause, and improving model robustness through systematic experimentation. - Experience designing validation methodologies, automated testing, and monitoring to ensure correctness, safety, and production reliability. - Strong ownership mindset with the ability to drive problems from investigation through implementation, validation, and deployment. - Excellent communication skills and experience collaborating across cross-functional engineering teams. ## Preferred Skills - Experience with planning, prediction, motion forecasting, or trajectory generation. - Experience deploying machine learning models into production environments. - Working knowledge of modern C++ and production software development. - Experience with TensorRT, ONNX Runtime, CUDA, or ML inference optimization. - Experience with large-scale distributed training or cloud-based ML infrastructure. - Publications or open-source contributions in machine learning, robotics, or autonomous driving. Bonus Qualifications Candidates who stand out typically have one or more of the following: - Deep expertise in autonomous vehicle planning or motion prediction. - Experience developing production ML systems for safety-critical applications. - Experience leading technical direction for large ML projects. - Strong intuition for balancing model quality, robustness, latency, and deployment constraints. - Demonstrated ability to solve ambiguous, cross-functional engineering problems involving machine learning, software systems, and autonomous driving. ## Your opportunities joining PlusAI Work, learn and grow in a highly future-oriented, innovative and dynamic field. Wide range of opportunities for personal and professional development. Catered free lunch, unlimited snacks and beverages. Highly competitive salary and benefits package, including 401(k) plan. ## About PlusAI ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: PlusAI develops AI-based autonomous driving software for heavy trucks, powering Level 4 (L4) virtual driver systems that enable trucks to operate without human intervention on highways. - **Entity Type**: Private (planning to go public via a SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp IX, NYSE: PLAV – conflicting reports indicate the reverse merger may have been cancelled) - **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States - **Founded**: 2016 - **Founders**: Not publicly available in provided sources ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Autonomous driving / automotive technology - **Target customers**: B2B – global truck manufacturers (OEMs) and large freight fleets - **Mission**: To make trucking safer, more efficient, and more sustainable by deploying AI-powered autonomous driving at scale ## Products & Services - **SuperDrive**: L4 autonomous driving system that serves as a virtual driver for factory-built heavy trucks. Designed to be installed by OEMs and monetized on a per-mile usage basis. - **PlusDrive**: A driver-assist version of SuperDrive that keeps a human in the cabin to oversee the system. Already in commercial use, reducing driver fatigue and fuel costs. - **SuperDrive HyperFoundry**: A suite of proprietary AV data and tools (data acquisition, auto-labeling, 3D reconstruction, neural simulation) sold to third-party customers today, generating revenue before the full L4 launch. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed; the SPAC merger was valued at $300M (conflicting reports of cancellation). - **Key Metric**: Annual revenue of $4M (as of latest data); total funding of ~$1.3B across 8 rounds. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: TRATON GROUP (Scania, MAN, International), Hyundai Motor Company, Iveco Group, Bosch, DSV, Ryder. - **Growth Signals**: - Active trial with Ryder and International on a 600+ mile daily route (I-35 corridor) – 60,000+ cumulative miles, approaching 100 runs. - Recent software upgrades enabling night driving and construction zone capabilities. - Partnered with multiple global OEMs to install SuperDrive on factory-built trucks – no retrofitting required. - 7M+ miles of L4-validated data collected. ## Competitive Advantages - **Asset-light software model**: Zero manufacturing capex – PlusAI is a pure-play software provider, avoiding heavy hardware costs. - **OEM integration**: Factory-installed by partners like TRATON and Hyundai, providing a scalable path to thousands of trucks. - **Proprietary data moat**: Over $500M in R&D investment and 7M+ miles of validated data enable advanced AI models (end-to-end and vision-language-action). - **Capital efficiency**: Path to cash-flow positive in 2027E, with lower OpEx than key competitors. ## Strategic Focus - **Near-term**: Commercial launch of driverless L4 trucks in 2027, targeting revenue from per-mile usage. - **Current revenue generation**: Selling AV data and tools (HyperFoundry) to third parties. - **R&D edge**: Leveraging large AI models and generative AI to continuously improve the virtual driver’s capabilities and expand the Operational Design Domain (ODD). ## Why Work Here - **Culture & ratings**: Employer rating of 4.1/5 (30 reviews), with high marks for work-life balance (4.6), culture (4.7), and career growth (4.6). - **Engineering focus**: 105 technical employees (23% of workforce); active job postings (38) include senior ML infrastructure, perception, planning, simulation, and engineering intern roles. - **Global offices**: HQ in Santa Clara, CA, with offices in Fremont, Cupertino, and Munich, Germany. Workforce spans 8 countries. - **Notable perks**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge autonomous driving technology with partners like TRATON, Hyundai, and Bosch. Strong talent pipeline from Stanford, CMU, and alumni at Waymo, NVIDIA, Apple. ## Sources 1. [LinkedIn – PlusAI](https://linkedin.com/company/plusai) 2. [CB Insights – PlusAI](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/plusai) 3. [PitchBook – PlusAI](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/180375-76) 4. [PlusAI Presentation (April 2026)](https://www.plus.ai/documents/plusai-presentation-april-2026.pdf) 5. [PlusAI Careers Page (Lever)](https://jobs.lever.co/plus-2) ## Other roles at PlusAI - [Program Manager - Japan (Bilingual Japanese/English)](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-japan-bilingual-japanese-english-plusai-santa-clara-0ahxgnsxxmm4) — Santa Clara, CA - [Software Verification & Validation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-verification-validation-engineer-plusai-santa-clara-fv6fv3b784ja) — Santa Clara, CA - [Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-motion-planning-plusai-santa-clara-x1pkbe5ekz4a) — Santa Clara, CA - [Senior/Staff Software Engineer (Machine Learning Runtime), Motion Planning](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-machine-learning-runtime-motion-planning-plusai-3ayj39bayq6s) — Santa Clara, CA - [Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer (Reinforcement Learning), Motion Planning](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-machine-learning-engineer-reinforcement-learning-motion-planning-ww5yty7kqtr9) — Santa Clara, CA - [Data Engineer (SE / Sr SE)](https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-se-sr-se-plusai-santa-clara-90rq3eg8kg6j) — Santa Clara, CA - [Software Engineer (SE / Sr SE), Fullstack](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-se-sr-se-fullstack-plusai-santa-clara-ctmf6p8xwe3x) — Santa Clara, CA - [Senior Simulation Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-simulation-software-engineer-plusai-santa-clara-j0eghaqdq4hv) — Santa Clara, CA - [Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-machine-learning-engineer-perception-plusai-santa-clara-av26fffj0ehh) — Santa Clara, CA - [Principal Engineer, Mapping and Localization](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-engineer-mapping-and-localization-plusai-santa-clara-pqv0j6919kv9) — Santa Clara, CA