Principal Software Engineer, Team Lead - Perception Platforms

Role overview Lead a team building the data, training, and evaluation foundations used to develop perception systems for autonomous vehicles. The role combines technical leadership with hands-on software engineering, working closely with machine learning engineers and research teams to improve workflows from data preparation through model evaluation. It also guides the team’s priorities, technical direction, and development.

Responsibilities - Lead and develop a team responsible for perception data pipelines, training workflows, and evaluation systems. - Set team goals, priorities, and roadmap, aligning work with wider engineering objectives. - Guide architecture and implementation of improvements to machine learning workflows, contributing production code directly. - Mentor team members, support career development, and lead design and code reviews. - Collaborate across disciplines to resolve technical challenges and improve the efficiency of model development. - Build or improve tools that help teams understand datasets, model behavior, performance, and difficult edge cases.

Requirements - At least 7 years of professional software engineering experience, including 3 or more years in a leadership or mentoring role. - At least 2 years developing, operating, or supporting distributed machine learning training across GPU clusters. - Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science or a related technical field. - Strong Python skills and familiarity with data processing libraries such as NumPy or Pandas. - Backend development and architecture experience with complex systems, plus understanding of machine learning or perception topics. - Hands-on ability to contribute production-quality code and experience with software design, source control, builds, reviews, and testing.

Nice to have - Concurrency, parallel processing, database systems, Kubernetes, or Ray experience. - Autonomous vehicle or robotics perception work; GPU-accelerated data processing; modern C++, PyTorch, or TensorFlow. - Experience with internal visualization tools, project delivery, or products using LLMs and MCP protocols.

Benefits and work setup - The listed U.S. salary range is $240,000–$330,000. The source also describes medical, dental, vision, 401(k) matching, health savings accounts, life insurance, and pet insurance; eligibility may vary by position.