About the roleThe Senior Perception Software Engineer owns key components of Cyngn's autonomy perception stack, leading the design, development, and deployment of object detection, tracking, and sensor fusion algorithms and the testing and validation infrastructure that supports them, for autonomous vehicles operating in complex indoor and outdoor environments. This role sets technical direction for owned subsystems, mentors other engineers, and partners across teams to deliver production-ready perception capabilities.
What you'll do- Lead the design, implementation, and deployment of object detection, tracking, and sensor fusion algorithms for autonomous vehicles, from research through production.
- Own the architecture and technical direction of assigned perception subsystems, making sound trade-offs among accuracy, latency, compute, and robustness, including in challenging conditions such as variable lighting, dust, reflective surfaces, and degraded sensors.
- Define perception performance metrics and evaluation frameworks, and drive the tooling and infrastructure for continuous testing, performance validation, and system diagnostics.
- Build and curate ground-truth and regression datasets that enable automated backtesting of perception changes.
- Lead testing and deployment of production software in simulation environments and on production vehicles, driving root-cause analysis and resolution of perception failures found in field and simulation testing.
- Break down complex projects into milestones, estimate effort, and lead execution with other engineers to meet product-driven timelines in a fast-paced startup environment.
- Mentor engineers and provide high-quality design and code reviews that raise the team's engineering standards.
- Partner with simulation, hardware, systems, and QA teams to define requirements, interfaces, and validation plans.
Qualifications- BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a similar technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years of professional experience developing perception software for autonomous vehicles or robotics platforms.
- Expert programming skills in modern C++ (C++17 or newer), including production-grade, multithreaded, real-time applications on Linux.
- Demonstrated track record of shipping perception systems on deployed vehicles or robotic platforms, including LiDAR point cloud processing and camera-based computer vision and/or machine learning.
- Strong fundamentals in linear algebra, probability, optimization, and 3D geometry.
- Strong understanding of state estimation and sensor fusion for multi-object tracking.
- Experience leading technical projects and mentoring engineers.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Bonus Qualifications- MS or PhD in a relevant field.
- Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
- Experience with autonomous industrial vehicles, such as AGVs, AMRs, or autonomous forklifts and tuggers.
- Experience optimizing and deploying models on embedded or GPU compute platforms (e.g., CUDA, TensorRT).
- Experience with ROS / ROS 2 and perception libraries such as OpenCV, PCL, Eigen, or Ceres.
- Track record of research contributions, such as patents, white papers, or peer-reviewed publications.
Benefits & Perks- Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision) through Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, and Guardian, with multiple plan tiers to choose from
- Ancillary benefits including accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity plans (Voya)
- Company-paid basic life insurance, plus voluntary (supplemental) life for you and your dependents
- Short-term and long-term disability insurance
- HSA and FSA (Health & Dependent Daycare)
- Employee Assistance Program
- 1:1 Health Concierge
- Company 401(k)
- Commuter Benefits
- Flexible PTO policy
- Paid Parental Leave
- Daily lunches for in-office employees and fully-stocked kitchen with snacks and beverages
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
The pay range for this role is:
198,000 - 218,000 USD per year (HQ - Terra Bella)
