Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Behaviors

We're Cruise, a self-driving service designed for the cities we love.

We’re building the world’s most advanced, self-driving vehicles to safely connect people to the places, things, and experiences they care about. We believe self-driving vehicles will help save lives, reshape cities, give back time in transit, and restore freedom of movement for many.

Cruisers have the opportunity to grow and develop while learning from leaders at the forefront of their fields. With a culture of internal mobility, there's an opportunity to thrive in a variety of disciplines. This is a place for dreamers and doers to succeed.

If you are looking to play a part in making a positive impact in the world by advancing the revolutionary work of self-driving cars, join us.

We’re looking for a Staff Engineer MLE on our Autonomy Capabilities team to deliver mission-critical autonomous driving features from concept to production. The Autonomy Capabilities team works closely with the Product organization to rapidly stand-up new end-to-end autonomous functionality to support operational area expansion in SF and beyond. The Capabilities team is responsible for developing and maintaining key autonomous driving areas including high-speed driving, planner mission management, yield or assert decision making, and any new maneuvers that may be required in the future. Our job is to design and execute projects coordinated across our engineering teams to stand-up new capability prototypes and transition them into the production driving stack. Engineers on this team develop algorithms and system roadmaps for handling complex autonomous challenges, coordinate major cross-functional projects, and deliver brand-new autonomous capabilities that help Cruise reach its goal of operating a fully driverless ridesharing service in San Francisco.

The Staff Machine Learning Engineer is a versatile role in Behaviors that drives a wide spectrum of applied ML research and development to overcome challenges on urban roads.

What you’ll be doing:

• Work with team leads and engineering leadership to prioritize development roadmaps and plan future projects.
• Invent, extend, design, and develop next-generation features that expand Cruise’s operational driving domain.
• Have a deep understanding of the business and operational impact for different technology tradeoffs, and able to balance effectively based on company’s need
• Influence cross-functional autonomy teams to build consensus on early-stage designs
• Play a key role in others’ professional development, adding value to their career via improving their technical skills.
• Improve and deliver reliable software through continuous integration, automated testing and code reviews.

What you must have:

• Extensive experience with ML frameworks such as Tensorflow, Caffe, and PyTorch
• Extensive experience with machine learning and classification
• Strong programming skills in Python or C++
• The ability to be “scrappy” - jump into any codebase and quickly understand what is going on.
• A proven record of shipping products in the real world.
• A passion to see a problem solved, regardless of the technical area or challenge where the problem lies
• The desire to root-cause issues, no matter where your search may lead.
• Strong organizational and communication skills.
• Ability to clearly formulate, discuss, and solve novel problems.
• Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace, Mathematics, Physics, EE, or equivalent experience.

Bonus points!

• PhD in machine learning or computer science
• Experience with ROS, OpenCV, Gazebo, or PCL
• Experience with CUDA
• Track record in deploying prediction models into real world environments
• Experience developing safety-critical code (e.g. aerospace)
• Experience with computational geometry or linear algebra
• Experience developing elegant state machines and business logic for complex systems
• Experience developing high-quality software under significant latency and performance constraints (e.g. video games, high-frequency trading)
• Motion planning and robotics experience

• Our benefits are here to support the whole you:
• Medical / dental / vision, AD+D and life insurance
• Subsidized mental health benefits
• One Medical membership
• Flexible Spending Account 
• Monthly wellness stipend
• 401(k) match 
• Paid time off: vacation, sick, public health emergency, jury duty, bereavement and company holidays. 
• Paid parental, family care and medical leave
• Family care benefits: fertility benefits, Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (subsidized by Cruise).
• Non-remote employees: Pre-tax Commuter Benefit Plan, healthy meals and snacks 
• CruiseFlex - a working policy for US-Based Cruisers that lets you and your manager find what working style is best for you, whether it’s primarily in-person, primarily at home or a combination of home and in-office time.

• We’re Integrated
• Through our partnerships with General Motors and Honda, we are the only self-driving company with fully integrated manufacturing at scale.

• We’re Funded
• GM, Honda, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price & Walmart have invested billions in Cruise. Their backing for our technology demonstrates their confidence in our progress, team, and vision and makes us one of the leading autonomous vehicle organizations in the industry. Our deep resources greatly accelerate our operating speed.

• We’re Independent
• We have our own governance, board of directors, equity, and investors. Our independence allows us to not just work on the edge of technology, but also define it.

• We’re Vested
• You won’t just own your work here, you’ll have the potential to own equity in Cruise, too. We are competing in a market that is projected to grow exponentially, which gives our company valuation room to grow.
• Recurring Liquidity Opportunity (RLO) - a unique equity program where employees, both current and former, have the option to sell any amount of their vested equity on a recurring basis, currently quarterly.

• We’re Safety Conscious
  • We integrate #staysafe, our top priority at Cruise, into our everyday work. Through our Safety Management System, every Cruiser is asked to do their part by reporting any potential issues or hazards they observe and making continuous improvements. You’ll be able to contribute to safety at Cruise, no matter your job function or title.

Cruise LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a supportive and inclusive workplace where contributions are valued and celebrated, and our employees thrive by being themselves and are inspired to do the best work of their lives. 

We seek applicants of all backgrounds and identities, across race, color, ethnicity, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or parental status, or disability. Applicants will not be discriminated against based on these or other protected categories or social identities. Cruise will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, in accordance with applicable laws.

Cruise is committed to the full inclusion of all applicants. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process please let our recruiting team know or email HR@getcruise.com.

We proactively work to design hiring processes that promote equity and inclusion while mitigating bias. To help us track the effectiveness and inclusivity of our recruiting efforts, please consider answering the following demographic questions. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary. Your answers to these questions will not be shared with the hiring decision makers and will not impact the hiring decision in any way. Instead, Cruise will use this information not only to comply with any government reporting obligations but also to track our progress toward meeting our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging objectives.

Note to Recruitment Agencies: Cruise does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Furthermore, Cruise does not pay placement fees for candidates submitted by any agency other than its approved partners.