Staff Software Engineer

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Perception team, you will be a key technical leader, defining and driving the long-term vision and architecture for our perception systems in forthcoming pilots, directly influencing Hayden’s mission and roadmap for business expansion

You will be responsible for setting the technical direction and standards for the team, architecting complex, scalable, and robust end-to-end perception and robotics systems for deployment on real-world hardware, and ensuring their successful integration into Hayden’s core product platform

This is a C++ software engineering position demanding both hands-on technical mastery and significant architectural and systems leadership

You will operate with complete technical ownership over major system components, mentoring junior and senior engineers, driving complex cross-functional initiatives, and making critical trade-off decisions that balance bleeding-edge innovation, system reliability, performance, and long-term maintainability across the entire Perception stack

Spearhead the architectural design, implementation, and long-term ownership of next-generation perception systems, ensuring seamless transition from research prototypes to robust, scalable production solutions

Champion best practices in software development, delivering high-performance, meticulously tested, and maintainable C++ code optimized for heterogeneous edge and robotics computing platforms

Architect and optimize high-throughput, real-time perception pipelines, setting the technical direction for advanced techniques in object detection, tracking, and sophisticated sensor fusion

Drive the strategic selection, adaptation, and integration of state-of-the-art Machine Learning (ML) and Computer Vision (CV) models, including the development of novel, proprietary models tailored to complex, large-scale Hayden-specific problems

Provide technical leadership in highly ambiguous and complex problem domains, defining the technical roadmap and consistently striking the optimal balance between rapid iteration for R&D and the rigorous requirements for productization and scale

Act as a key technical liaison, collaborating strategically with Product leadership and setting technical standards across cross-functional Engineering organizations

Define and significantly contribute to foundational shared infrastructure, tooling, and architectural patterns, scaling pilot initiatives into core, mission-critical product capabilities

This role requires deep expertise in computer vision and/or robotics algorithms that are deployed on the edge/cloud

Extensive experience leading large, complex, production-grade systems end-to-end

Deep expertise in one or more of: robotics, state estimation, computer vision, or applied machine learning

Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field

Expert-level proficiency in modern C++, including experience with real-time and/or embedded systems

10+ years of relevant experience in building and deploying perception systems; experience in automotive or robotics domains is a plus

Proven track record of technical leadership and architectural ownership across multiple projects or teams

Strong ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across teams

Demonstrated mentorship and ability to raise the bar for engineering quality across an organization

Experience scaling systems from prototype to production in ambiguous, fast-moving environments