Staff/Principal Engineer - Perception Capabilities

Company: Motional
Location: Boston
Posted on: February 13, 2026

Job Description:

Job Description Job Description Mission Summary: As a seasoned expert in Perception Capabilities, you'll field cutting-edge software products and solutions using state-of-the-art computer vision and deep learning. Your breadth of experience spans critical problem areas like detection, classification, segmentation, and tracking, along with essential supporting functions such as data engines, labeling policies, training pipelines, model optimization, simulation, and testing. You're driven by seeing your work significantly impact the product, taking initiative and owning outcomes. You're eager to apply these skills to the perception stack of self-driving vehicles. You understand the unique challenges of safety-critical, open-world applications and are committed to ensuring engineering excellence and rigorous evaluation. You'll devise creative solutions to complex problems, collaborating with interdisciplinary, capability-focused teams across the organization to design, implement, and validate end-to-end solutions. What you'll be doing: Lead the development and implementation of solutions that span across perception components and directly interface with downstream modules in the autonomy system. Analyze the performance of the perception subsystem to proactively identify potential limitations with respect to a set of system-level capabilities. Document potential hazards and lead the cross-team efforts to eliminate or mitigate them. Collaborate on innovative solutions to address "long tail" challenges. For example, developing techniques for synthetic data generation, advanced data mining, or leveraging language embeddings in our onboard models. Depending on your background and interests, you may also help optimize and deploy models to the vehicle, ensuring they operate within the constraints of our onboard hardware and meet our functional requirements and interface specifications. Interface with systems and safety engineers, test engineers, and data analysts to ensure appropriate requirements, test coverage, and performance metrics What We're Looking for: Master's or Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field; or equivalent industry experience Strong leadership skills in executing large, complex technical initiatives Track record of successful interdisciplinary work and product-focused engineering Broad understanding of Deep Learning algorithms, architectures, and applications Experience designing, training, and analyzing neural networks for applications relevant to perception Fluency in Python, including common libraries for deep learning (PyTorch), scientific computing, and data analysis and visualization Advanced knowledge of software engineering principles, including software design, source control management, build processes, code reviews, and testing methods Excellent communication and interpersonal skills Experience mentoring and leading others Bonus Points: Experience shipping a "real" product and balancing ongoing support with next-generation innovation Experience developing safety-critical products or components Publications in relevant conferences (CVPR, ICML, NeurIPS, etc.) Strong programming skills in C++ and/or CUDA programming Experience with TensorRT and model quantization The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional's benefits program. Motional's benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insurance, and more. Salary Range $200,000—$285,000 USD Motional is a driverless technology company making autonomous vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality. We're driven by something more. Our journey is always people first. We aren't just developing driverless cars; we're creating safer roadways, more equitable transportation options, and making our communities better places to live, work, and connect. Our team is made up of engineers, researchers, innovators, dreamers and doers, who are creating a technology with the potential to transform the way we move. Higher purpose, greater impact. We're creating first-of-its-kind technology that will transform transportation. To do so successfully, we must design for everyone in our cities and on our roads. We believe in building a great place to work through a progressive, global culture that is diverse, inclusive, and ensures people feel valued at every level of the organization. Diversity helps us to see the world differently; it's not only good for our business, it's the right thing to do. Scale up, not starting up. Our team is behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's longest-standing public robotaxi fleet. We're driven to scale; we're moving towards commercialization of our technology, and we need team members who are ready to embrace change and challenges. Formed as a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, Motional is fundamentally changing how people move through their lives. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit www.Motional.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Motional AD Inc. is an EOE. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To comply with Federal Law, we participate in E-Verify. All newly-hired employees are queried through this electronic system established by the DHS and the SSA to verify their identity and employment eligibility.

Keywords: Motional, Newton , Staff/Principal Engineer - Perception Capabilities, Engineering , Boston, Massachusetts