Senior Vehicle Integration Engineer

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. was founded in 2018 and has become a leader in autonomous ground transportation committed to a safer and more efficient future for all. The company has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) powered technology stack purpose-built for commercial trucking and the public sector. The company delivers freight daily for its customers across the southern United States using its autonomous technology. In 2024, Kodiak became the first known company to publicly announce delivering a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak is also leveraging its commercial self-driving software to develop, test and deploy autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.

We are looking for a Senior Vehicle Integration Engineer with a field support focus to keep our deployed autonomous systems running at customer sites. You'll own fleet uptime, lead root cause investigations, and act as the technical bridge between customers, field operations, and product engineering — working across hardware, software, firmware, and systems integration to resolve issues fast and drive long-term reliability.

In this role, you will:

• Respond rapidly to field failures and technical support requests to maintain system uptime, including extended-hours and on-call support with rotating weekends
• Travel frequently to customer and deployment sites to troubleshoot and resolve complex issues (min. 30% travel expected)
• Lead cross-functional root cause analysis (RCA) across electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software domains
• Drive corrective and preventive actions to eliminate repeat failures
• Support implementation of design changes through prototyping, validation testing, and integration at customer sites
• Source and define technical requirements for field-facing hardware and integration designs based on real-world failure data and operational needs
• Improve diagnostic strategies and tooling to detect and isolate failure modes more rapidly, and recommend reliability enhancements based on operational performance data
• Perform preventative, corrective, and predictive maintenance on autonomous platforms
• Provide direct design feedback to product and hardware engineering teams grounded in hands-on field experience
• Create and review documentation including schematics, drawings, build instructions, and troubleshooting guides

What you'll bring:

• • Strong bias toward action. You take ownership of ambiguous problems, move quickly to contain issues, and deliver results without waiting for perfect clarity.
  • Hands on. You are just as comfortable with a wrench as a keyboard. Proven experience debugging and assembling complex hardware/software systems, ideally in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or similarly advanced systems.
  • Systems thinker. Strong troubleshooting ability across electrical, mechanical, and software domains. Deep familiarity with automotive and embedded electronics, including communication protocols such as Ethernet, CAN, LIN, and 100BASE-T1.
  • Design-minded. Track record of contributing to hardware or systems design reviews with practical, implementation-focused feedback. You translate field observations and failure trends into actionable design requirements.
  • Comfort operating in Linux environments and using terminal-based diagnostic tools.
  • Experience with scripting or programming languages such as Python, C++, C, Bash, or ROS.
  • Ability to independently solve complex, novel technical problems with minimal guidance.
  • Great communicator. Strong written and verbal skills across diverse audiences — you can explain a firmware bug to a customer and write a clear troubleshooting guide for the field team.

  Nice to have:

  • Experience with autonomy-specific sensors such as LiDAR, radar, cameras, and INS systems
  • Wire harness design, prototyping, soldering, and custom electronics fabrication experience
  • Familiarity with CAD tools (SolidWorks or similar)
  • Experience conducting structured failure analysis
  • Experience working in high-travel, fast-scaling field environments

What we offer:

• Competitive compensation package including equity and annual bonuses
• Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision plans through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and  MetLife (including a medical plan with infertility benefits)
• MetLife Legal Services, Identity & Fraud Protection, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, Accident Insurance, & Critical Illness Insurance
• Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave policies
• Our office is centrally located in Mountain View, CA
• Office perks: dog-friendly, free catered lunch, a fully stocked kitchen, and free EV charging
• Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, Life Insurance
• Wellbeing Benefits - Headspace through Cigna, Calm through Kaiser, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health through Cigna, Rula (mental health navigation) 
• Fidelity 401(k)
• Commuter, FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA
• Various incentive programs (referral bonuses, patent bonuses, etc.)

The pay range listed below reflects the base salary in our SF/Silicon Valley location, across several internal levels. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors including: work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level and performance during interview. Total compensation at Kodiak includes base pay, equity, bonus and a competitive benefits package

California Pay Range

$145,000

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$185,000 USD

At Kodiak, we strive to build a diverse community working towards our common company goals in a safe and collaborative environment where harassment of any kind is strictly prohibited. Kodiak is committed to equal opportunity employment regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

In alignment with its business operations, Kodiak adheres to all relevant statutes, regulations, and administrative prerequisites. Accordingly, roles that carry more sensitive requirements may be limited to candidates that can satisfy additional scrutiny and eligibility for such positions may hinge on verification of a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status. Should the position require, and Kodiak determines that a candidate’s residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status necessitate an export license, bar the candidate from the position, or otherwise fall under national security-related restrictions, Kodiak will consider the candidate for alternative positions unaffected by such restrictions, under terms and conditions set forth at Kodiak’s sole discretion, or, as an alternative, opt not to proceed with the candidate’s application. If applicable, Kodiak may provide visa sponsorship for eligible candidates.