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Staff Software Engineer, Planning Infrastructure

Kodiak

Job Location:

Mountain View, CA - USA

Monthly Salary: $ 240000 - 265000

Posted: 21 August 2026 (17 hours ago)

Application Deadline: 18 November 2026

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Kodiak Robotics Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous 2024 Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.

We are looking for a Senior or Staff Software Engineer to build infrastructure tools and systems that help our Planning team develop debug evaluate and deploy autonomy software faster and more safely.

In this role you will build the internal tools libraries workflows metrics and evaluation systems that support behavior and motion planning development. You will work closely with Planning engineers to understand their workflows and create infrastructure that improves engineering velocity software quality system performance and test coverage.

This is a great role for a strong generalist engineer who enjoys building systems that other engineers rely on every day.

What Youll Do

Build tools and infrastructure that accelerate Planning development.
Improve testing debugging metrics and evaluation workflows for the Planning team.
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 Were Looking For

Strong software engineering background experience with C performance optimization and large-scale software 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 a desire to build tools that make other engineers more effective.

The pay range listed below reflects the base salaryin our SF/Silicon Valley locationacross 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

California Pay Range

$240000 - $265000 USD

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 statutes regulations and administrative prerequisites. Accordingly roles that carry more sensitive requirements may be limited to candidates that can satisfy additional scrutiny and eligibility for such positions may hinge on verification of a candidates residence U.S. person status and/or citizenship status. Should the position require and Kodiak determines that a candidates residence U.S. person status and/or citizenship status necessitate an export license bar the candidate from the position or otherwise fall under national security-related restrictions Kodiak will consider the candidate for alternative positions unaffected by such restrictions under terms and conditions set forth at Kodiaks sole discretion or as an alternative opt not to proceed with the candidates application. If applicable Kodiak may provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates.

We use a third-party AI tool (Endorsed) to assist in the initial screening of applications. As part of the evaluation process we provide Endorsed with job requirements and candidate-submitted applications. Final hiring decisions are made by our human recruitment team and no automated system makes the ultimate decision regarding hiring. Certain features of the platform may qualify it as an Automated Employment Decision Tool (AEDT) under applicable regulations. We began using Endorsed on January 1 2026. You can review the independent bias audit report covering our use of Endorsed here( By submitting your application you acknowledge that your application may be processed by AI systems as part of the screening and selection process. If you have any questions or would like to request a separate review of your application please contact with Separate Review Request in the email subject line.

Required Experience:

Staff IC

Apply Now

About Company

Kodiak

Our purpose-built autonomous solution, the Kodiak Driver, is the AV industry’s most advanced driverless technology, seamlessly integrating into any driving platform for reliable movement in any environment. Learn how we’re shaping the future of ground transportation.

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