--- title: 'Software Engineer, Runtime at PlusAI' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-runtime-plusai-santa-clara-9fk40vtxevxq' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-08' --- # Software Engineer, Runtime at PlusAI - **Company:** PlusAI - **Location:** Santa Clara, CA - **Compensation:** $150k–$180k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2025-03-13 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/plus-2/35e40aca-9414-4121-b7a0-d3e87fd6101a ## 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. Responsibilities: - Work closely with our autonomy and runtime teams to improve our redundant on-vehicle platform and autonomous software stack. - Develop perspectives on where opportunities and gaps might be in our redundant software and hardware strategy with a longer-term horizon in mind - Integrate and optimize performance and robustness of different autonomous software component into redundant on-vehicle platform. - Design and develop fault detection and fault handling strategies for redundant on-vehicle platform. - Design and develop validation strategies for redundant on-vehicle platform, including on vehicle testing, Sil and HiL simulation testing. - Evaluate, integrate and optimize partner middleware into our AD stackOwns or help with driverless operation key features, like mission control, tele assist, etc. - Ensure that your work is performed in accordance with the company’s Quality Management System (QMS) requirements and contribute to continuous improvement efforts. - Ensure team compliance with QMS, monitor quality, and drive process improvements. Required Skills: - Minimum 2+ years of professional experience - MS or PhD in Computer Science or related field - Strong programming skills in C++ and Python - Basic understanding of computer vision and deep learning models - Hands-on experience of high performance IPC / middleware stack - Strong analytical skills, especially for performance troubleshooting (e.g. profiling, roofline model) - Familiarity with CUDA, OpenCL, OpenVX, Halide or other SIMD programming models. - Ability to quickly learn and adapt to new technology - Ability to work on large code bases and a fast growing environment - Strong communication skills - Familiar with Linux system and basic kernel tuning, network tuning, device tree tuning, timesync, etc. - Comfortable with On-vehicle troubleshooting and performance profiling ## Preferred Skills - Experience with CV pipeline and model inference on edge platforms - Experience with ROS2 and DDS - Experience with automotive HPC SoCs (Nvidia preferred) - Experience with QNX ## 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. 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