Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy - Calibration, Mapping & Localization

About Cyngn
Based in Mountain View, CA, Cyngn is a publicly-traded autonomous technology company. We deploy self-driving industrial vehicles like forklifts and tuggers to factories, warehouses, and other facilities throughout North America. To build this emergent technology, we are looking for innovative, motivated, and experienced leaders to join us and move this field forward. If you like to build, tinker, and create with a team of trusted and passionate colleagues, then Cyngn is the place for you. Key reasons to join Cyngn:

We are small and big.
With under 100 employees, Cyngn operates with the energy of a startup. On the other hand, we’re publicly traded. This means our employees not only work in close-knit teams with mentorship from company leaders—they also get access to the liquidity of our publicly-traded equity.

We build today and deploy tomorrow.
Our autonomous vehicles aren’t just test concepts—they’re deployed to real clients right now. That means your work will have a tangible, visible impact.

We aren’t robots. We just develop them.
We’re a welcoming, diverse team of sharp thinkers and kind humans. Collaboration and trust drive our creative environment. At Cyngn, everyone’s perspective matters—and that’s what powers our innovation.

About this role:
As a Staff/Senior Software Engineer on our Calibration, Localization, & Mapping (CLAM) team, you will be responsible for delivering mission-critical improvements and new features to our calibration, localization, and mapping subsystems. You will work on a small, highly focused team developing production-quality software that enables efficient and accurate creation of HD maps at Cyngn deployment-sites and robust localization for Cyngn’s autonomous vehicle fleets. You will collaborate cross-functionally with vehicle infrastructure, hardware, QA, and other autonomy teams (Perception, Decision, Planning, and Control) to achieve seamless integration with interfacing submodules, comprehensive testing, and ultimately safe and efficient driving for the next generation of Cyngn’s autonomous vehicles.

Responsibilities:
• Design, implement, tune, and test mapping, localization, and sensor calibration algorithms for our autonomous vehicle platforms using C++ and Python.
• Develop tooling and metrics for performance validation and continuous testing frameworks.
• Balance project tasks, code reviews, and research to meet product-driven milestones in a fast-paced startup environment.

Qualifications:
• MS/Phd with focus in robotics or a similar technical field of study
• Solid foundation in probability theory, linear algebra, 3D geometry, and spatial coordinate transformations.
• In-depth understanding of matrix factorization algorithms and Lie algebra/groups.
• Solid theoretical knowledge of state-of-the-art techniques in 3D Lidar-based mapping and localization for autonomous vehicles (LOAM series, GICP, FastLIO, bundle-adjustment)
• Familiarity with state estimation frameworks such as EKF’s as well as modern nonlinear optimization libraries (GTSAM, G2O, Ceres-Solver, GNC-Solver, etc.).
• 6+ years of industry experience as an autonomous vehicle or robotics software engineering professional including hands-on implementation and tuning on production hardware.
• 6+ years industry experience writing C++ software in a production environment - architecture design, unit testing, code review, algorithm performance trade-offs, etc.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Excellent written & verbal communication skills.

Bonus Qualifications:
• Proven record of top-tier publications or patents.
• Experience with GPU programming, CUDA.
• Experience in implementing automated map change detection and updating techniques.
• Experience implementing modern multi-sensor calibration and sensor mis-alignment detection algorithms.
• Experience with camera-based SLAM and 3D multi-view geometry.
• Experience working with ROS2 to design, build, and operate robotic systems.
• Exposure to modern software development version control and project management tools - Git, Jira, etc.

Benefits & Perks:
• Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA and FSA (Health & Dependent Daycare), Employee Assistance Program, 1:1 Health Concierge)
• Life, Short-term and long-term disability insurance (Cyngn funds 100% of premiums)
• Company 401(k)
• Commuter Benefits
• Flexible vacation policy
• Sabbatical leave opportunity after 5 years with the company
• Paid Parental Leave
• Daily lunches for in-office employees and fully-stocked kitchen with snacks and beverages