{"id":710950,"url":"https://alion.io/job/gatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer","title":"Senior Behavior Planning Engineer","company":{"id":21901,"name":"Gatik","domain":"gatik.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/gatik","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":57,"open_postings":67,"ghost_share":0.716,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Santa Clara, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":180000,"max":260000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":260000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Behavior Tree","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Diffusion Models","optional":false},{"name":"Motion Planning","optional":false},{"name":"Vision-Language-Action","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-08-07T20:51:23Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-19","last_verified_at":"2026-10-27T06:08:39Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":445,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale","company_stale"],"days_open":445},"description":"Who we are\nGatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation. \nThe company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations. \nAbout the role\nWe’re seeking Senior or Staff Engineers to help build the core behavior planning system for autonomous vehicles, enabling safe and intelligent decision-making. The role involves designing behavior tree architectures, developing robust C++ infrastructure, collaborating across autonomy teams, evaluating planner performance, and providing technical leadership within the team.\nThis role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office!\nWhat you'll do\nDesign, implement, and maintain the core behavior planning system for autonomous vehicles, enabling intelligent, interpretable, and safe decision-making in complex real-world scenarios.\nDevelop and extend behavior tree architectures for hierarchical decision logic, including support for mission planning, tactical maneuvers, and contingency handling.\nCollaborate closely with the motion planning, prediction, and control teams to ensure seamless transitions from high-level decisions to executable trajectories.\nBuild and optimize C++-based software infrastructure for behavior planning, including tools for simulation, debugging, visualization, and closed-loop testing.\nEvaluate planner performance in diverse real-world and simulated environments; identify failure modes and develop strategies to improve robustness and generalization.\nParticipate in design reviews and system integration across the full autonomy stack.\nProvide technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural guidance for junior team members.\nWhat we're looking for\nPh.D. with 3+ years or Master’s with 5+ years of industry experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or behavior planning.\nProven experience in behavior planning, including use of behavior trees, finite state machines, or rule-based planners in autonomous driving or robotics applications.\nStrong proficiency in C++ with a deep understanding of performance, memory management, and software architecture in production systems.\nSolid understanding of motion planning and prediction interfaces, with experience building real-time, safety-critical systems.\nKnowledge of diffusion models and/or Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models is a strong plus.\nStrong debugging, system thinking, and collaborative communication skills.\nSalary Range - $180,000- $260,000\nMore about Gatik\nFounded in 2017 by experts in autonomous vehicle technology, Gatik has rapidly expanded its presence to Mountain View, Dallas-Fort Worth, Arkansas, and Toronto. As the first and only company to achieve fully driverless middle-mile commercial deliveries, Gatik holds a unique and defensible position in the AV industry, with a clear trajectory toward sustainable growth and profitability.\nWe have delivered complete, proprietary AV technology - an integration of software and hardware - to enable earlier successes for our clients in constrained Level 4 autonomy. By choosing the middle mile - with defined point-to-point delivery, we have simplified some of the more complex AV challenges, enabling us to achieve full autonomy ahead of competitors. Given extensive knowledge of Gatik’s well-defined, fixed route ODDs and hybrid architecture, we are able to hyper-optimize our models with exponentially less data, establish gate-keeping mechanisms to maintain explainability, and ensure continued safety of the system for unmanned operations.\nVisit us at Gatik for more company information and Careers at Gatik for more open roles.\nNotable News\nBloomberg: Autonomous Trucking Firm Gatik Inks Contracts Worth $600 Million\nForbes: Hundreds’ Of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For U.S. Roads\nForbes:Gatik And Loblaw Announce Largest Commercial Deployment Of AV Trucks\nForbes: Forget robotaxis. Upstart Gatik sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs\nTech Brew: Gatik AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry\nBusiness Wire: Gatik Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework\nAuto Futures: Autonomous Trucking Group Gatik Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS\nAutomotive News: Gatik foresees hundreds of self-driving trucks on road soon, and that's just the beginning\nForbes: Isuzu And Gatik Go All In To Scale Up Driverless Freight Services\nBloomberg: Autonomous Vehicle Startup Takes Off by Picking Off Easier Routes\nReuters: Driverless vehicles on limited routes bump along despite US robotaxi scrutiny\nTaking care of our team\nAt Gatik, we connect people of extraordinary talent and experience to an opportunity to create a more resilient supply chain and contribute to our environment’s sustainability. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives yet united by a bold vision and shared commitment to our values. Our culture emphasizes the importance of collaboration, respect and agility.\nWe at Gatik strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels they have opportunities to succeed and grow because we know that together we can do great things. We are committed to an inclusive and diverse team. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status or any legally protected status.\nE-Verify Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Gatik participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program","description_format":"text","description_chars":6551,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Autonomous Driving","Logistics","Road Transport"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T04:42:05Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 19 · green card filings: 1","filings_12m":19,"filings_prev_12m":21,"green_card_filings_12m":1,"median_offered_wage_usd":172250,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":4,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.141,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":445,"expected_fill_days":28,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","ghost","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":260000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/gatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/gatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-27T09:16:47Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10298,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-28T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":21901},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=21901"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fgatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fgatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fgatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/gatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fgatik-seniorstaff-behavior-planning-engineer"}]}