About the role
We are seeking a high impact, technically deep Machine Learning Engineer to develop, optimize, and deploy production ML models across our autonomous vehicle (AV) stack. This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building models end-to-end - from data and training through optimization and real-time deployment on autonomous vehicles.
You will work closely with perception, prediction, planning, infrastructure, systems, and hardware teams to ensure models are efficient, scalable, reliable, and production-ready for both on-vehicle and cloud workflows.
This role is onsite 5 days a week at our Santa Clara, CA office!
What you'll do
End-to-End Model Development: Own the full ML lifecycle, including data strategy, preprocessing, training, evaluation, optimization, deployment, and monitoring.
Autonomous Driving Models: Develop and improve models supporting perception, prediction, planning, and scene understanding.
Efficient Neural Network Design: Optimize models using techniques such as quantization, pruning, sparsification, compression, and efficient architecture design to meet strict latency, compute, memory, and power constraints.
Real-Time Deployment: Integrate trained models into C++-based autonomy systems and optimize inference for production vehicle hardware.
Model Optimization: Profile and optimize neural networks using CUDA, TensorRT, and related technologies.
Simulation and Evaluation: Analyze model performance using simulation and real-world driving data, identify failure modes, and drive improvements.
Scalable ML Infrastructure: Build high-throughput pipelines for training, evaluation, data processing, and large-scale offline inference.
Data Workflows and Tooling: Develop reliable pipelines for dataset curation, annotation, preprocessing, visualization, diagnostics, benchmarking, and continuous feedback from field data.
CrossFunctionalIntegration: Partner with autonomy, systems, hardware, and infrastructure teams to ensure ML components integrate reliably into the broader vehicle platform.
What we're looking for
Education: MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Statistics, Optimization, or a related field.
Experience: Open to all experience levels. Leveling will be determined based on experience and technical depth.
Programming & Frameworks
Strong Python skills and experience with frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
Strong C++ skills and experience integrating ML models into high-performance production systems.
Core ML & Systems Expertise
Deep understanding of ML workflows, including data curation, training, evaluation, ablation studies, deployment, and inference optimization.
Experience deploying and optimizing neural networks for real-time, embedded, robotics, autonomous driving, or other performance-constrained systems.
Experience with model optimization techniques such as quantization, pruning, compression, and efficient architectures.
Experience with software architecture, profiling, latency optimization, system-level debugging, and data flow analysis.
Infrastructure & Compute Tools
Experience with CUDA and TensorRT is highly desirable.
Experience with cloud-based ML training and evaluation pipelines, preferably Azure.
Bonus Qualifications
Experience with transformers, multimodal models, diffusion models, world models, or end-to-end driving models is a plus.
Experience in autonomous driving, robotics, or other safety-critical real-time ML systems is strongly preferred.
Publications or demonstrated technical contributions in efficient ML, autonomous driving, robotics, or related areas are a plus.
Prior contributions to large-scale ML systems deployed in production.
Salary Range $180,000 - $260,000
More about Gatik
Founded in 2017, Gatik has grown into a commercial force in autonomous freight, operating trucks daily in live customer networks across the United States and Canada. We're headquartered in Santa Clara, California, but our impact is felt on the roads and in the supply chains that keep essential goods moving for some of the biggest companies in North America.
Our trucks do some of the most demanding work in freight, running high-frequency, time-sensitive routes between distribution centers and stores, where reliability matters every single day. For our customers, that means more capacity, better service and products arriving where they need to be, when they need to be there.
Behind it all is AI-first technology built from the ground up for autonomous trucking, capable of navigating highways and surface streets and tackling the complexity of real-world logistics at scale.
Visit Gatik for more company information and Careers at Gatik for more open roles.
Notable News
For the latest company news, visit the Gatik newsroom.
Recent media coverage
TechCrunch: Self-driving truck startup Gatik raises $200M following PepsiCo deal
Reuters: Gatik secures $200 million in funding as autonomous freight market accelerates
Bloomberg: Driverless Trucks Can Save Lives on America's Roads
PepsiCo website: PepsiCo and Gatik announce multi-year agreement to deploy autonomous freight in North America
Wall Street Journal: Driverless Trucks Are Here - and They’re Delivering Bags of Doritos
CBS News: Pepsi deploys self-driving delivery trucks
Bloomberg: Autonomous Trucking Firm Gatik Inks Contracts Worth $600 Million
Forbes: Hundreds’ Of Gatik Robot Delivery Trucks Headed For U.S. Roads
CNBC-TV18: No more test runs: Gatik says driverless trucks are now a real, money-making business
Forbes: Gatik And Loblaw Announce Largest Commercial Deployment Of AV Trucks
Taking Care of Our Team
At 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.
We 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.
E-Verify Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Gatik participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program.
