Director of Software Engineering, Behaviors and Planning

Overland AI
Seattle
Workplace: OnsiteFull timeUSD 200,000 - 300,000 annuallyFunction: Executive & General ManagementExperience: 5+ yearsEducation: phdSkills: ["Leadership","Communication","Cross-team collaboration","Technical mentorship","Comfort with ambiguity"]

Lead Overland AI’s Behaviors & Planning team for single-vehicle autonomy, managing 7–10 engineers across motion planning, on-vehicle behaviors, geospatial planning, and offline verification. Own the autonomy loop—planning, behavior management, and integration with the ML & Perception team—then drive the verification story using simulation, log playback, and automated regression testing. Support field deployments and translate operational insights into technical roadmap decisions.

Loading

Loading job details...

Preparing the role view and application actions.

FursaFursa
Overland AI
Overland AI
2 months ago

Director of Software Engineering, Behaviors and Planning

✓ Verified Job

Canonical indexed version, validated from employer's careers page.

Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI
Last checked: 16 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Lead Overland AI’s Behaviors & Planning team for single-vehicle autonomy, managing 7–10 engineers across motion planning, on-vehicle behaviors, geospatial planning, and offline verification. Own the autonomy loop—planning, behavior management, and integration with the ML & Perception team—then drive the verification story using simulation, log playback, and automated regression testing. Support field deployments and translate operational insights into technical roadmap decisions.
Location: Seattle
Workplace: Onsite
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Executive & General Management
Seniority: Director level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Lead the Behaviors & Planning team by managing, mentoring, and growing 7–10 engineers, including sprint planning and technical priority-setting.
  • •Own the single-vehicle autonomy loop across local/mid-range planning, global/geospatial planning, behavior management, and task interfaces for safety and reliability.
  • •Partner with the ML & Perception team to integrate terrain understanding products into planning and execution, co-owning the contract between teams.
  • •Build and run the offline verification story using simulation, log playback, and automated regression testing; invest in tooling and infrastructure to prevent regressions.
  • •Represent the team in the field by supporting deployments and demonstrations, translating operational observations into engineering priorities.

Pay and Benefits

Salary: USD 200,000 - 300,000 annually
Equity and Bonus:Equity
Perks:Equity401kHealth InsuranceDentalVisionPaid LeaveParental Leave

Key Requirements

  • •PhD in robotics, computer science, controls, or a related field with research focus in motion planning, autonomous navigation, or robot decision-making.
  • •5+ years of professional experience beyond the PhD, shipping autonomy software in industry.
  • •2+ years leading an engineering team, setting technical direction and delivering complex systems on a timeline.
  • •Deep expertise in at least two areas such as sampling/optimization-based motion planning (e.g., MPPI, RRT), costmap-based navigation, behavior/state machines, vehicle control, or simulation/verification.
  • •Experience shipping autonomy to hardware and strong collaboration at the perception-planning interface.
Experience:5+ yearsRoboticsAutonomyDefenseGround vehiclesMachine learning
Education:PhD / Doctorate
Skills:LeadershipCommunicationCross-team collaborationTechnical mentorshipComfort with ambiguity
Tech Stack:MPPICostmap-based navigationRRTTrajectory optimizationBehavior state machinesSimulationLog playbackAutomated regression testingROS2VLM-based reasoningGISSatellite imageryGeospatial planning

Eligibility

Nationality:US National
Security Clearance:Secret

Company Brief

Overland AI
Develops AI-driven autonomous navigation, mapping, and perception solutions for off-road and overland vehicles, using sensor fusion and machine learning to enable safe, long-range autonomy and situational awareness in unstructured terrains.
Industry: Autonomous Vehicles
Website