Software Systems Engineer - Advanced Autonomy Systems Engineering Lead

Position: Staff Software Systems Engineer - Advanced Autonomy Systems Engineering Lead
Latitude AI (lat.ai) is building the future of Ford’s autonomy roadmap to make travel safer, less stressful, and more enjoyable for everyone. Bringing this vision to scale, our fully in-house developed hands-free ADAS platform will debut on the all-new Ford Fathom in 2027. When you join the Latitude team, you’ll work alongside leading experts across machine learning and robotics, cloud platforms, mapping, sensors and compute systems, test operations, systems and safety engineering – all dedicated to redefining the relationship between people and their vehicles for millions of customers.

As a Ford Motor Company subsidiary, we operate independently to develop automated driving technology at the speed of a technology startup. Latitude is headquartered in Pittsburgh with engineering centers in Dearborn, Mich., and Palo Alto, Calif.

Meet the team:

Latitude’s Autonomy Systems Engineering Team spearheads the end-to-end development of autonomous vehicle systems. The team defines the ODD, establishes vehicle and sub-system requirements, and leads sensor selection analysis. By partnering with software development and Functional Safety teams, they architect robust systems that prioritize safety and performance. Additionally, they decompose complex autonomy functions for verification and implement large-scale metrics to ensure rigorous requirement compliance.

What you’ll do:

For the next generation of L3/L2+ autonomy systems at Latitude AI, you will lead the following work as an individual contributor working across the organization:

The definition of the ODD:
Negotiate product-level wants and define vehicle-level behavioral requirements, working closely with Latitude’s Product team and executive management

The development of the HW/SW architecture:
Collaborate with Latitude’s hardware and software leads

High-level systems engineering:
Define requirements, metrics, and verification methods in partnership with systems engineering teams and software leads

Functional safety:
Establish the high-level functional safety approach and HW/SW safety architecture, working closely with the Functional Safety team

Fail-safe and fail-functional architectures:
Design the frameworks necessary for functional safety and SOTIFAdditional Responsibilities:

Collaborate across functions:
Work with all autonomy functions (Systems Engineering) and SW owners on topics ranging from mapping to perception to vehicle controls

System evaluation:
Evaluate the in-car system from the customer’s perspective and provide critical, regular feedback to the development teams

What you'll need to succeed:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics or a related field and 7+ years of relevant experience (or Master's degree and 5+ years of relevant experience, or PhD and 2+ years of relevant experience)
At least 5+ years of experience working in either automotive or robotics engineering, or a related field

Experience working on autonomy functions such as mapping, sensing, localization, detection, routing, motion planning, motion control, etc.

Experience writing requirements and developing metrics

Experience with the analysis and testing of complex systems through data-driven approaches

Experience with / knowledge of autonomy and safety related SW algorithms

Experience with Python, C++, or other programming skills, as well as git experience

Experience developing safety architectures to meet ISO 26262 or similar standards

Nice to have:
Doctorate Degree with a focus in robotics

Experience with autonomous vehicle development

Experience with autonomous vehicle testing

Experience developing robotics SWExperience developing FuSa SW

What we offer you:

Competitive compensation packages

High-quality individual and family…