Senior Software Engineer – Vehicle Motion Planning & Control

About the role

Zendar is building a radar‑centric autonomy stack for vehicles and robots. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Vehicle Motion Planning & Control team, you will design, implement, and validate algorithms that enable safe, smooth, and reliable autonomous driving.

Key responsibilities

• Design and develop the motion planning stack, creating trajectory planning and decision‑making algorithms for dynamic, uncertain environments.
• Architect, implement, and validate longitudinal and lateral vehicle control software, writing mission‑critical real‑time C++ for on‑vehicle and embedded automotive compute.
• Integrate planning and control with perception and platform teams, defining clean interfaces and supporting vehicle demos from bring‑up to customer runs.
• Build simulation and analysis tools in Python and C++ to evaluate planner and controller performance before deployment.
• Define driving‑quality and safety metrics, analyze field data, and contribute to failure and hazard analyses.

Required profile

• 3+ years of software engineering experience with production‑quality C++ and Python.
• Hands‑on experience in motion planning, decision making, or vehicle controls for autonomous vehicles, ADAS, or robotics.
• Strong foundation in linear algebra, geometry, statistics, probability, and vehicle dynamics.
• Proven ability to take features from design through real‑world deployment.
• Willingness to work onsite in Berkeley, CA, at least Tuesday‑Thursday.

Required skills

• Modern C++ (real‑time, embedded)
• Python
• Motion planning algorithms (optimization‑based, search methods, MPC)
• Vehicle control and estimation techniques
• Simulation and analysis tooling

What we offer

• Impact at a venture‑backed startup in an emerging market
• Collaboration with motivated engineers
• Competitive salary $160,000–200,000 annually
• Performance‑based bonus, equity, medical/dental/vision benefits, flexible PTO
• Daily catered lunch and stocked fridge in the Berkeley office