Staff Engineer (Planning / Decision Making)

Who are we? Oxa is enabling the transition to self-driving vehicles through an initial focus on the most commercially advanced sector; the autonomous shuttling of goods and people. We are home to some of the world’s leading experts on autonomous vehicles, creating solutions such as Oxa Driver, equipping vehicles with full self-driving functionality; Oxa MetaDriver, using Generative AI to accelerate and assure the safety of deployments; and Oxa Hub, a set of cloud-based offerings for autonomous fleet management. Our technology is being deployed across the UK and the U.S, and we’re partnering with a fast-growing ecosystem of operators, vehicle OEMs and equipment makers serving autonomous transportation globally as it advances. Based in Oxford, and with offices in Canada and the U.S, Oxa was founded in 2014 and is  growing rapidly (425+ ‘Oxbots’ to date). Our purpose is to change the way the Earth moves, through an uncompromising focus on safety, efficiency and explainability of our AI approaches. The company has attracted $225 million from leading investors so far, with $140 million raised in the last Series C funding round in January 2023. The Role We are looking for a leader to head our AV Decision Making team. In this role, you will spearhead the design, implementation, testing, and deployment of the driving policy, ensuring our AVs drive like humans – predictably and safely. Your primary focus will be on behavior and manoeuvre planning for Oxa’s different on-road and off-road applications, utilising state-of-the-art robotics and AI algorithms. You will collaborate extensively across the company, working closely with other Planning teams (like Machine Learning and Trajectory Planning), upstream teams (such as Perception), and various other groups in a highly cross-functional environment. Your Team You will join our Planning Team, where we are building the core Engine that defines how Oxa's Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) behave and move, all based on their real-time understanding of the environment. In this role, you will: Lead and manage the AV Decision Making team, which is responsible for the development, integration, and deployment of AV reasoning software that drives our AVs through complex on-road and off-road environments. Take ownership of the architecture and strategic direction of your team, and overall shape the development of the Oxa Driver. Promote a cross-functional development style and closely collaborate with routing, trajectory planning, machine learning, and other teams to achieve human-like, predictable, and safe AV driving behaviors. Drive the adoption of engineering and software development best practices in your team. Create appropriate metrics and tools to measure and benchmark the performance of the planning software stack deployed in various environments. Take ownership of the engineering lifecycle, including scoping, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance of your team's work. Document and train others on your team's work, focus on improving features, and understand the business and customer value of your team's work. Spearhead hiring and onboarding by defining role responsibilities and requirements, leading interviews, engaging in recruiting outreach for your team, and mentoring and developing new team members. Positively impact product quality, customer experience, and maintainability, and identify projects that improve team processes and solutions. Requirements What you need to succeed: PhD in related field (Mech Eng, Aerospace, Comp Science, Robotics, Mechatronics) with significant years of industry experience is desired MS in related field (Mech Eng, Aerospace, Comp Science, Robotics, Mechatronics) with extensive years of industry experience is acceptable Practical experience with Behaviour Planning, Decision Making and Trajectory Planning for autonomous driving Prior tech lead and people management experience in a robotics software development team (preferably focused on autonomous driving), guiding and mentoring team members. A deep understanding of Robotics Fundamentals, including: Robotics architectures 2D/3D Geometry & transformations Vehicle kinematics and dynamics Probability handling and uncertainty representation Bonus: Solid understanding of Trajectory Optimisation Experience with integrating and deploying complex robotics algorithms on target hardware in safety-critical environments. Strong C++ and basic Python software development skills, including modern C++ algorithm development and deployment in a production environment. Deep understanding of modern software engineering practices, including automated testing and CI. Understanding of AI/ML techniques for decision making and/or motion planning in the AV space. Extra kudos: A customer-obsessed mindset. We value people who relentlessly try to anticipate and prioritise the needs of our customers. We call it ‘inventing on their behalf.’ Familiarity with Google Cloud Platform. Relevant publications or talks in robotics or related conferences/journals. Benefits We provide: Competitive salary, benchmarked against the market and reviewed annually Hybrid working arrangements Life Insurance AD&D Insurance Long Term Disability Insurance Critical Illness Cover Extended Health Care Dental Cover Health Spending Account Personal Spending Account Employee Assistance Program Our Culture We believe that diversity of thought and experience is a key driver of innovation. It also makes life, and work, more interesting. So ours is a culture that celebrates humanity in all its diversity and richness, and uses difference as fuel to grow and succeed together. Everyone is welcome, everyone has a voice, everyone is valued. And our work and people are all the better for it. Learn more about our culture here. Why become an Oxbot? Our team of experts in computer science, AI, robotics and machine learning is world-class, and together they’re solving the most exciting and important technological challenges of our times. But as well as smarts, Oxbots have heart. Our diverse, multi-cultural crew is guided by a shared vision to bring the myriad benefits of autonomy to our customers and partners. And in a company that celebrates uniqueness as much as skill and experience, they do it with energy, conviction and a healthy dose of excitement, too. If you are bold, creative and hyper skilled, come and create the future of autonomy with us at Oxa.