Senior Software Engineer, Planning Infrastructure
Build infrastructure and tools to enhance the Planning team's development of autonomy software at Kodiak Robotics.
Posted by employer 4 months ago
First seen on Joblaze 1 month ago
Last verified on the company career page 8 hours ago
AI in the day-to-day
We use AI-powered technology for developing and deploying autonomous capabilities.
Requirements
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Visa
- Sponsorship available
Not disclosed in this posting: work arrangement.
Benefits
Joblaze summary
In this role, the Senior Software Engineer focuses on developing infrastructure and tools that enhance the Planning team's ability to create and deploy autonomous software efficiently. Key skills include expertise in C++ and experience with large-scale software systems, particularly in autonomy or robotics. This position is ideal for a seasoned engineer who thrives on building systems that amplify the productivity of their peers. Kodiak Robotics, a leader in autonomous transportation, emphasizes collaboration and safety in its innovative work environment.
Joblaze insights
- Listed about a month ago — first seen on Joblaze September 3, 2026. Last confirmed on Kodiak Robotics's careers page October 27, 2026.
- Salary band is in line with the typical range for Backend roles (median ~$180,000).
- Starts above 79% of 66 comparable senior backend roles in United States that list C++ we track (median $165,000 across 26 companies). See C++ salary trends
- C++ appears in 16% of 532 comparable senior backend roles in United States; Robotics appears in 0.2% of 532 comparable senior backend roles in United States.
Quick facts
- What's the salary range?
- Kodiak Robotics lists $180,000–$215,000 for this role.
- How much experience is required?
- At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Senior Software Engineer, Planning Infrastructure role.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: C++, Robotics, autonomy.
- Does Kodiak Robotics sponsor work visas for this role?
- Yes — the posting indicates visa sponsorship is available for the right candidate.
- What seniority level is this role?
- Kodiak Robotics targets senior candidates for this position.
- Is this full-time or contract?
- Full-time for this Senior Software Engineer, Planning Infrastructure role at Kodiak Robotics.
From the original posting
Kodiak AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: KDK), founded in 2018, is a leader in Physical AI, developing driverless technology that powers machines that move. Its Kodiak Driver is a vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving system that combines AI-powered software with modular hardware. Today it operates in long-haul trucking, industrial trucking, and defense. In 2024, Kodiak launched commercial Driver-as-a-Service operations with no one in the cab, and plans to launch driverless long-haul service between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2026.
We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to build infrastructure, tools, and systems that support our Planning team to develop, debug, evaluate, and deploy autonomy software faster and more safely.
You are part of the Planning team with a focus on understanding workflows and creating infrastructure that improves engineering velocity, software quality, system performance, and test coverage. You will develop the internal tools, libraries, workflows, metrics, and evaluation systems that support behavior and motion planning development.
This is a great role for a strong generalist engineer who enjoys building systems that other engineers work with on a daily basis. This role is especially well-suited for someone who enjoys multiplying the effectiveness of other engineers and wants broad technical impact.
What You’ll Do
- Build tools and infrastructure that accelerate Planning development.
- Improve testing, debugging, metrics, and evaluation workflows.
- Expose actionable insights from logs, simulation, and real-world autonomy data.
- Build infrastructure that supports safety case development and test coverage analysis.
- Improve internal libraries, developer workflows, and Planning observability.
- Optimize performance, maintainability, and reliability of Planning software.
- Partner closely with Planning engineers to identify bottlenecks and improve development velocity.
- Design reusable systems and abstractions used across the Planning team.
- Lead infrastructure projects with broad team-wide impact.
What We’re Looking For
- Strong software engineering background with 5+ years experience with C++ performance optimization and large-scale software systems, ideally with autonomy or robotics systems.
- Experience building tools, libraries, frameworks, infrastructure, or developer workflows.
- Ability to write clean, maintainable, high-performance code.
- Experience with metrics, logs, testing, debugging tools, simulation, or data-driven evaluation.
- Strong systems thinking and ability to understand complex engineering workflows.
- Interest in autonomy, robotics, or planning systems.
- Strong collaboration skills and interest to build tools that make other engineers more effective.
Strong Plus
- Experience building safety-case tooling or test coverage infrastructure.
- Experience with large-scale autonomy metrics and evaluation systems.
The pay range listed below reflects the base salary in our SF/Silicon Valley location, across several internal levels. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors including: work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level and performance during interview. Total compensation at Kodiak includes base pay, equity, bonus and a competitive benefits package
Standard company text repeated across Kodiak Robotics's postings is omitted here.