Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning Infrastructure

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become the trusted world leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company is developing an industry-leading artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for driverless military and long-haul trucking applications. Kodiak’s unique modular hardware approach integrates sensors into a streamlined sensor-pod structure that optimizes for perception, scalability, and maintainability. The company autonomously delivers freight daily for its commercial customers across the Sun Belt states and for Atlas Energy in the Permian Basin. Kodiak also leverages its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.

We are looking for a highly skilled Infrastructure Engineer to join the Perception team and build world-class deep learning training, evaluation, and deployment infrastructure for the development of the perception and prediction modules of our self-driving semi trucks.

In this role, you will:

• Be responsible for designing and implementing Kodiak’s infrastructure for training, evaluating, and deploying deep learning models in efficient Python and C++ code
• Develop and optimize push-button training pipelines in distributed environments
• Develop metrics to measure model, perception system, and overall self-driving performance
• Build systems to track metrics over time and enable comparison of experiments
• Develop systems for finding failure cases, visualizing predictions, and pinpointing areas for improvement
• Create systems to track, segment, and select data to be used in training or reinforcement, including synthetic and machine-generated labels
• Measure and optimize deep learning network and detection runtime performance using state of the art techniques
• Enable continuous integration and deployment of model improvements
• Collaborate closely with other experts in sensors, perception, prediction, planning, and systems engineering teams

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong technical background. BS, MS or PhD with academic or industry experience in designing and implementing deep learning, ML, or data analytics infrastructure. Skilled in Python/C++ and strong problem-solving skills. You ideally also have a strong knowledge of data processing pipelines for training ML models in the cloud.
• Very strong software engineering skills and experience building high-reliability applications used by other engineers. You write well-designed, highly maintainable code. Code is your craft.
• Solid understanding of metrics, data analysis, and scientific evaluation. Bonus points for understanding the specific subtleties in measuring and evaluating the performance of a robot and its submodules.
• A team player. You take ownership and work with the team to deliver exceptional results. You are interested in the performance of the entire system across engineering disciplines.
• Ability to build and iterate quickly. You enjoy working fast and smart, and you are comfortable in defining and building lasting infrastructure components from scratch.
• Hands on. You are experienced working with production machine learning pipelines, from dataset collection and labeling to training and validation.
• Great communicator. You have experience writing clear, concise, and detailed documentation. You can listen and understand what would enable your model development colleagues to measure and refine ML models more quickly and what is necessary to improve the performance of the Kodiak Driver.

What we can offer:

• Competitive compensation package including equity and biannual bonuses
• Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Anthem, and Guardian (including a medical plan with infertility benefits)
• Flexible PTO and generous parental leave policies
• Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging
• Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance
• Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health
• Fidelity 401(k)
• Commuter, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA
• Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)

The annual salary range for this full-time position is $150,000-$230,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Actual salary ranges will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process. Please note that the compensation details listed above are base salary only and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits.

At Kodiak, we strive to build a diverse community working towards our common company goals in a safe and collaborative environment where harassment of any kind is strictly prohibited. Kodiak is committed to equal opportunity employment regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

In alignment with its business operations, Kodiak adheres to all relevant U.S. national security statutes, regulations, and administrative prerequisites. These statutes may impose limitations on Kodiak's capacity to engage specific individuals in particular roles based on various national security-related criteria. Kodiak will provide sponsorship for eligible candidate's. Consequently, the eligibility for this position may hinge on Kodiak's verification of a candidate's residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status. In accordance with these statutes , Kodiak may find it necessary to secure a U.S. government export license before disseminating its technologies to specific individuals. Should Kodiak determine that a candidate's residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status necessitate a license, prohibit the candidate from assuming this position, or otherwise fall under national security-related restrictions, Kodiak explicitly retains the right to either assess the candidate for an alternative position unaffected by such restrictions, under terms and conditions set forth at Kodiak's sole discretion, or, as an alternative, opt not to proceed with the candidate's application.