Job Description: Navigation and Behavior Planning Specialist

Salary: $150K - $200K Location Type: Remote Employment Type: FullTime

Position Overview

Serve Robotics is revolutionizing urban mobility with its personable sidewalk robots, designed to move deliveries off congested streets, increase accessibility, and support local businesses. Our robots are currently operating in Los Angeles, providing commercial deliveries and delighting users. We are seeking talented individuals to help transform robotic deliveries from a novelty into an efficient, ubiquitous service.

Who We Are

We are a team of tech industry veterans with expertise in software, hardware, and design, dedicated to building a better future through technology. We solve real-world problems using robotics, machine learning, and computer vision, with a strong focus on the end-to-end user experience. Our team is agile, diverse, and collaborative, approaching complex challenges with respect and teamwork.

Role Description

We are seeking a Navigation and Behavior Planning Specialist to spearhead the development of advanced planning technologies for our autonomous robots operating in semi-structured urban environments like sidewalks, intersections, and pedestrian pathways. In this role, you will design and implement state-of-the-art algorithms to ensure our robots navigate complex scenarios with precision and safety. This includes real-time decision-making for dynamic interactions with pedestrians, vehicles, and obstacles, as well as supporting intricate maneuvers like multi-point turns.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement advanced planning and control algorithms for autonomous sidewalk robots in complex urban settings.
• Collaborate with mapping, perception, and sensor fusion teams to develop robust dynamic agent prediction models and integrate them into the planning pipeline.
• Develop a semantic navigation stack that integrates planning algorithms with rich semantic understanding from multi-modal sensor inputs (vision, LiDAR, etc.).
• Enhance the robot's ability to handle failure scenarios, improve efficiency, and compose low-level robotic skills into high-level, goal-directed behaviors.
• Lead testing and validation efforts in both simulation and real-world deployments, ensuring planning systems are reliable, safe, and performant.
• Maintain clear and comprehensive documentation for algorithms, codebases, interfaces, and system designs to facilitate collaboration and long-term maintainability.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree and 5+ years of experience in Robotics, AI, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Strong foundation in behavior planning methods, including state machines, behavior trees, policy learning, and probabilistic planning.
• Proven experience debugging and resolving long-tail edge cases in real-world autonomous systems using targeted behavior planning strategies.
• Working knowledge of machine learning techniques, particularly for dynamic agent prediction and planning.
• Proficiency in writing efficient, scalable, and robust code in C++ and Python.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical concepts clearly across teams.

What Makes You Stand Out

• PhD and 7+ years of experience in Robotics, AI, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with motion planning and control algorithms for autonomous mobile robots.
• Familiarity with reinforcement learning techniques for planning and control, including imitation learning and policy optimization.
• Background in integrating learning-based motion planners with traditional planning pipelines for adaptive, real-time behavior.
• Proven ability to design and scale simulation environments using tools like Gazebo and NVIDIA Isaac Sim for planning system development and validation.