Remote opportunity at
MotionalPrincipal Engineer Team Lead, Behavior Safety & Metrics
Motional seeks a Principal Engineer Team Lead for Behavior Safety & Metrics to guide evaluation strategies across its prediction and planning models. As a joint venture…
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About This Role
Motional seeks a Principal Engineer Team Lead for Behavior Safety & Metrics to guide evaluation strategies across its prediction and planning models. As a joint venture between Aptiv and Hyundai Motor Group, Motional develops driverless technology aimed at making autonomous vehicles safe, reliable, and accessible. Operating a prominent public robotaxi fleet and advancing commercialization, the company builds systems that navigate complex traffic environments using machine learning, robotics, and large-scale data.…
Job Description
Motional seeks a Principal Engineer Team Lead for Behavior Safety & Metrics to guide evaluation strategies across its prediction and planning models. As a joint venture between Aptiv and Hyundai Motor Group, Motional develops driverless technology aimed at making autonomous vehicles safe, reliable, and accessible. Operating a prominent public robotaxi fleet and advancing commercialization, the company builds systems that navigate complex traffic environments using machine learning, robotics, and large-scale data.
This remote, full-time position suits a technical leader capable of bridging individual model performance with real-world system behavior. The role involves designing advanced performance metrics, establishing data mining strategies, and shaping evaluation frameworks that incorporate counterfactual reasoning and reaction time analysis. Candidates will collaborate across departments—including safety, infrastructure, and operations—to ensure autonomous vehicle features meet established launch criteria and drive safety, comfort, and assertiveness improvements.
The annual salary ranges from USD 240,000 to 330,000, with potential additional compensation such as bonuses or company equity. Eligible employees can participate in the company benefits program, which covers medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k with company matching, health savings accounts, life insurance, and pet insurance.
Responsibilities
- Lead evaluation initiatives across prediction and planning models for autonomous vehicles
- Define and drive evaluation strategies encompassing open-loop and simulation-based assessments
- Design and implement advanced metrics to gauge model impact on overall system behavior utilizing machine learning approaches
- Integrate reaction time analysis and counterfactual reasoning into existing evaluation frameworks
- Formulate strategies for data mining and evaluate training and testing dataset coverage for prediction and planning
- Construct necessary tools and pipelines while identifying gaps in current processes
- Partner with machine learning engineers, roboticists, safety, infrastructure, operations, and legal teams to boost system performance and satisfy launch requirements
Requirements
- Hold either a Bachelor's degree with at least 7 years of professional experience, or a Master's or PhD with at least 5 years of professional experience in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical discipline
- Demonstrate a strong foundation in probability, statistics, data science, and scientific rigor applied to multi-agent systems
- Show proficiency in production environments using Python, SQL, and data analysis including statistics and visualization
- Possess experience establishing performance targets and acceptance criteria covering safety, comfort, and assertiveness alongside evidence to justify them
- Exhibit a proven ability to tackle technical hurdles, analyze interdisciplinary issues, and create maintainable solutions
- Display capability in leading initiatives, securing alignment, and engaging stakeholders throughout development cycles
- Demonstrate working expertise in hazard and safety analysis techniques including STPA, HAZOP, FMEA, and risk assessments
Qualifications
- Experience applying statistical and machine learning methods to quantify performance, spot regressions, and uncover system behavior patterns at scale
- Deep background in prediction and planning for autonomous robotics, featuring the evaluation of machine learning systems in production
- Familiarity with public autonomous vehicle datasets and benchmarks like nuScenes and the Waymo Open Dataset
- Solid understanding of standard industry metrics for motion planning and trajectory forecasting
- Prior history utilizing or constructing data pipelines at scale
- Strong communication capabilities suited for technical peers and executive leadership across distributed teams
- Knowledge of industry standards such as ISO 26262, SOTIF, UL4600, and AVSC behavior competencies
Core Skills
Benefits
- Medical coverage
- Dental coverage
- Vision coverage
- 401k plan with a company match
- Health savings accounts
- Life insurance
- Pet insurance
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
What is the location and remote status of this role?
This role is designated as remote and is offered on a full-time basis.
What is the salary range for the Principal Engineer Team Lead position?
The estimated annual base salary ranges from USD 240,000 to 330,000, with potential additional compensation like bonuses or company equity.
What are the core educational and experience requirements?
Applicants must have a Bachelor's degree with 7+ years of experience, or a Master's or PhD with 5+ years of experience, in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or a similar technical field.
How can I apply for this position?
The provided job posting does not specify application instructions.
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