
Senior Software Development Engineer, Motion Planning - Autonomous Vehicles
Santa Clara, CAFull-time$184–357K/yrPosted 5 days agoStill listed 3 days ago
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At a glance
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Job overview
NVIDIA is seeking an experienced senior software development engineer to develop motion-planning features for its autonomous driving platform. The role covers trajectory and motion-planning solutions, modeling vehicle behaviors as optimal-control problems, and integrating perception, prediction, and user-comfort preferences. The engineer will collaborate across teams to mature products through production, lead feature development and deployment, triage issues, and improve optimization solver performance.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Full job description
NVIDIA has been transforming computer graphics, PC gaming, and accelerated computing for more than 25 years. It’s a unique legacy of innovation that’s fueled by great technology—and amazing people. Today, we’re tapping into the unlimited potential of AI to define the next era of computing. An era in which our GPU acts as the brains of computers, robots, and self-driving cars that can understand the world. Doing what’s never been done before takes vision, innovation, and the world’s best talent. As an NVIDIAN, you’ll be immersed in a diverse, supportive environment where everyone is inspired to do their best work. Come join the team and see how you can make a lasting impact on the world.
We are seeking an experienced Motion planning senior software development engineer to develop key features for our autonomous driving platform. In this role, you will work on a mix of Trajectory planning, Motion Planning problems to build focused software solutions. Through effective collaboration with established teams, you will help design and mature new products all the way through to production.
What you'll be doing: Software development to deliver new motion-planning features entails a diversity of activities, including:
- Lead the entire feature lifecycle, driving motion planning solutions from initial design through to full productization and deployment..
- Model L2, L3, and L4 vehicle behaviors and driving modes by formulating them as optimal-control problems. Integrate perception, prediction data, and user-comfort preferences through deep collaboration with prediction and behavior planning teams.
- Enhance driving behavior and support overall product quality by engaging in continuous issue triage alongside product and user-experience engineers.
- Improve optimization solver performance using instruction parallelization and memory optimization techniques.
What we need to see:
- 8+ years of relevant experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Proven ability to develop high-quality C++ software within large, collaborative codebases.(Git, Gerrit, JIRA, Jenkins colab environments).
- Strong skills in applied mathematics, with proficiency in linear algebra, differential equations, numerical methods, and convex optimization.
Ways to stand out from the crowd:
- Prior experience contributing to product development within the Autonomous Driving industry.
- Expertise in constrained optimization-based trajectory generation for vehicle dynamics and performance optimization for in-car deployment.
- Familiarity with advanced motion planning algorithms, including lattice-based planners, hybrid A*, D*, and RRTs.
Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary ranges for this position are: 184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4; and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.
Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 13, 2026. This posting is for an existing vacancy. NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.
NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.
How this job compares
Set against the 38,872 open Software Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 14, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$184–357K/yr
- California median$163–243K/yr6,926 salary ranges
- US median$132–214K/yr31,450 salary ranges
This range's midpoint, $270K, is 32% above the California median midpoint ($205K) — in the top quarter of Software Engineer salary ranges in California.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 8,509 open Software Engineer jobs in California and 38,872 across the US. 8% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Experience
- This posting asks for at least 8 years of experience — more than three in four Software Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 32,117 postings).
- Education
- 12,029 of the 38,872 open Software Engineer jobs (31%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Pay, requirements and demand for Software Engineer jobs
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 14, 2026. Figures based on too few postings are left out.
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