5+ years of hands-on experience with Linux in production environments
Strong Linux system administration skills including networking and debugging
Experience building and owning CI/CD pipelines
Proficient in scripting with Bash and Python
Hands-on experience with physical hardware and debugging
Excellent communication skills and a proactive approach to support
Experience writing modern, maintainable C++ code
Responsibilities
Architect and enhance the vehicle operating environment for reliability
Design provisioning frameworks for zero-touch deployment
Develop containerized runtime strategies for resource optimization
Implement software distribution strategies for safe upgrades
Collaborate with DevOps to scale CI/CD infrastructure
Drive the software release process and ensure integrity
Diagnose complex system-level failures across software and hardware
Benefits
Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision) with multiple plan options
Company-paid life insurance and voluntary options for dependents
Fully paid short-term and long-term disability insurance
Flexible PTO policy and sabbatical leave after 5 years
Paid Parental Leave and daily lunches for in-office employees
401(k) plan and commuter benefits
Employee Assistance Program and Health Concierge
Full Job Description
About the role
Vehicle Infrastructure (VI) is the critical layer bridging our autonomy stack and the physical machines it powers.
As a Senior Vehicle Infrastructure Engineer, you are the architect of reliability and scale, owning the OS, provisioning, and release paths that ensure our autonomous fleet operates predictably in the field. This role goes far beyond maintenance; you will design the platform that prevents failures by design, collaborating with our DevOps team to orchestrate CI/CD pipelines, while taking full ownership of their operational impact and quality, evolving our OTA update strategies, and building the automation that makes our vehicle state reproducible, resilient, and ready for global deployment.
This position requires a multi-talented engineer who thrives where software intersects with the physical world. You won't just maintain the status quo; you will architect our autonomous platform's reliability. This requires a systems-first mindset that navigates seamlessly across engineering boundaries-debugging bare-metal firmware and raw sensor streams in the vehicle bay, optimizing the underlying OS and container runtime, and architecting the infrastructure that bridges our fleet to the cloud. We are looking for an engineer who treats every vehicle-level issue as a design challenge, transforming manual interventions into automated solutions that scale from the hardware level up to our global delivery pipelines.
What you'll do
Platform Architecture & Systems Engineering
Architect and harden the core vehicle operating environment, including kernel selection, secure boot protocols, and system-level health monitoring
Design end-to-end provisioning frameworks that allow for zero-touch deployment of both vehicle fleets and developer environments
Develop containerized runtime strategies that optimize resource isolation across heterogeneous hardware
Implement sophisticated software distribution and versioning strategies to ensure safe upgrade and rollback paths for mission-critical systems
CI/CD and Engineering Productivity
Collaborate with DevOps to implement and scale global CI/CD infrastructure, taking full ownership of pipeline throughput, build quality, and automated unit/integration testing
Partner with DevOps to drive the software release process, taking ownership of release-candidate integrity, version pinning, and go/no-go readiness
Collaborate with DevOps to architect OTA update pipelines, taking full ownership of deployment success, verification logic, and rollback strategies across remote, industrial fleets
Hardware-Software Integration & Diagnostics
Act as the final authority on system-level failures, diagnosing complex issues across the OS, network, sensors, and firmware boundaries
Bridge the gap between software and physical hardware by debugging on real hardware, using knowledge of sensors and firmware, to find the root cause of issues.
Build custom diagnostic tooling and runbooks that empower the wider engineering team to self-solve infrastructure bottlenecks
Technical Leadership & Strategy
Bring rigorous project management to infrastructure work, prioritizing long-term platform stability over short-term fixes
Mentor the engineering organization on systems best practices, deployment safety, and modern infrastructure-as-code principles
Champion a culture of automation and reliability, ensuring our autonomous platform scales ahead of our fleet growth
Qualifications
Substantial hands-on experience running Linux in production - typically 5+ years, weighted on depth and judgment rather than the number
Strong Linux system administration: systemd, networking, storage, users and permissions, package management, kernel and driver management, and real debugging ability when a machine misbehaves
DevOps and CI/CD experience where you built and owned pipelines rather than only consuming them
Strong scripting in Bash and Python
Willing and eager to work hands-on with real hardware - physical vehicles, raw sensor data, bare-metal debugging, cabling and connectors, CAN traffic
Excellent communication and a genuine willingness to help others; front-line support is a core part of the job
Strong leadership and organizational skills; proactive rather than reactive
Experience working with and writing modern, maintainable C++ code.
Strong communicator, comfortable working closely with people both in-office and remote
Based in or willing to relocate to the Mountain View, CA area; this role is on-site with regular hands-on vehicle work
Bonus Qualifications
Strong proficiency in writing and maintaining large, modern C++ code.
AWS (IoT/Greengrass, S3, EC2, IAM/SSO, Lambda) and infrastructure-as-code
Shipping OTA updates to IoT devices or autonomous vehicles, including staged rollout, verification, and rollback
Deep Ubuntu/Debian experience, including package building and distribution, and managing OS upgrades across a fleet you can't afford to brick
ROS/ROS2 and C++ literacy to read the stack you support, reproduce a failure, and file or fix an actionable bug
CAN bus, firmware updates, wiring, or general electrical troubleshooting
Yocto or other embedded Linux build systems; ARM targets
Configuration management (Ansible or similar) and secret management
Supporting a fleet of autonomous vehicles, robots, or IoT devices at scale
Familiarity with QA processes and test management tooling
Supporting hardware in the field, at customer sites, or over low-connectivity links
Experience leading a small team
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 plans, fully paid by Cyngn
HSA and FSA (Health & Dependent Daycare)
Employee Assistance Program
1:1 Health Concierge
Company 401(k)
Commuter Benefits
Flexible PTO policy
Sabbatical leave opportunity after 5 years with the company
Paid Parental Leave
Daily lunches for in-office employees and fully-stocked kitchen with snacks and beverages
What You Can Expect (Cyngn's interview process)
A real person will review your application
We'll kick off the process with a one-sided video interview where you'll share a little more about yourself and we'll get some basic questions out of the way
A Recruiter touch point will go over the process in more detail and answer your questions
A 45-minute interview with the hiring manager
A full-loop interview process consisting of 3-4 additional conversations to gauge technical and soft skills and culture fit.
A final onsite interview with the team.
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:
165,000 - 185,000 USD per year (HQ - Terra Bella)
About CYNGN
Cyanogen Inc. was a company that developed open-source software for Android devices. The company was founded in 2013 by Kirt McMaster, Steve Kondik and others. CyanogenMod was the company's initial product. CyanogenMod was a customized, aftermarket firmware distribution for Android devices. CyanogenMod was based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). CyanogenMod was designed to increase performance and reliability over Android-based ROMs released by vendors and carriers. CyanogenMod was discontinued in 2016. Cyanogen Inc. also developed other software products, such as the Cyanogen OS, which was a commercial version of CyanogenMod. Cyanogen OS was pre-installed on some smartphones, such as the OnePlus One, the YU Yureka, and the Wileyfox Swift. Cyanogen Inc. also developed the MOD platform, which was a platform for developers to create and distribute mods for Android devices. Cyanogen Inc. was dissolved in 2016.
