Fleet Specialist - Night Shift

About the role

Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech.

With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way.

Waabi is building generative AI for the physical world, starting with autonomous trucks. Our Texas road operations run both R&D testing and revenue freight out of our Lancaster terminal, and we are standing up a night shift to meet our commercial customers where they are.

The Fleet Specialist is Waabi’s right-seat software operator: the person who makes the autonomous system ready to run, watches how it behaves in the real world, and turns what happens on the road into information our engineers can act on. On night shift that work carries more weight, because you are often the first technical set of eyes on a problem.

This role suits someone genuinely curious about how the system works, who works a problem thoroughly before escalating and knows when escalating is the right call, and who documents well enough that day shift and the development teams can pick up exactly where the night left off.

• You will…
• Prepare vehicle systems for manual and autonomous missions: verify the AV release, map name and version, and vehicle compute and controller firmware, update and launch the mission container configuration, and confirm trailer weight and load ID.
• Send, launch, hold, and end missions in the Waabi App, Jira, and the Linux terminal, and confirm mission data has been offloaded before closing out a mission.
• Monitor vehicle and autonomy system status from the front right seat, including Foxglove visualizations, and relay system state and upcoming vehicle intent to the Vehicle Operator.
• Call for a disengagement whenever system information cannot be relayed quickly enough to keep the maneuver safe. Every crew member is empowered to make that call.
• Annotate on-road events with specific, descriptive context and categorize disengagements under Waabi’s Safety Risk, Stranding Risk, and Reputational Risk framework.
• Track and report mission performance including takeovers, dropouts, troubleshooting, and delays, maintaining the standard mission thread format.
• Complete AV stack pre-trip and post-trip documentation with close-up sensor and hardware photography, and escalate hardware conditions that were not resolved on the prior shift.
• Manage data drives: check out the required number for the mission profile plus contingency, verify each drive connects, and confirm logs are offloaded.
• Execute periodic calibration and static validation collects to procedure and document them to the standard template.
• Check conditions against the Operational Design Domain and verify with Dispatch before engaging or re-engaging near a policy limit.
• Serve as spotter for backing maneuvers, apply Get Out And Look (G.O.A.L.), and work in parallel with the Vehicle Operator on inspection and hook-up so the crew makes gate time.
• The role requires the ability to move around, under, alongside, and climb on a Class 8 tractor and trailer on scaffolding, stairs, and/or ladder to inspect and photograph sensors and hardware, and to handle data drives and cabling.
• Post accurate, timely shift status in Slack, maintain 5-S standards in the bays and garage, and brief Vehicle Operators on software and truck behavior changes before each mission.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Prior experience in a related operations, logistics, technical support, or vehicle testing role preferred.
• Technical aptitude is central to this role. Comfort working at a command line - container logs, device resets, fault handling - and an interest in understanding the compute and sensor systems on the truck.
• Strong written communication and a high standard for documentation. Much of this role is judged on the quality of the record you leave behind.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to follow a procedure exactly under time pressure.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, frequently changing environment where priorities and schedules move.
• Able and willing to work overnight, late night, weekend, and holiday shifts, including extended, potentially consecutive shifts of up to approximately 14 hours (following DOT regulations), and overnight travel.
• Ability to travel to support out-of-area missions, scouting, and testing.
• Basic computer skills and the ability to learn Waabi’s mission, fleet, and inspection tooling quickly.
• Passionate about self-driving technology, solving hard problems, and creating innovative solutions.
• Previous autonomous vehicle, robotics, or vehicle testing experience, experience troubleshooting computer, network, or embedded systems, and prior night shift or 24/7 operations experience are all a strong plus.
• Enhanced Pre-trip Inspector (EIP) certification, or interest in becoming certified, is a plus.

Night Shift Schedule and Flexibility

Base shift: 11:00 PM - 7:30 AM CT, based at Waabi’s Lancaster, TX terminal.

• Start and end times may shift.
• The shift may begin and end a few hours later and, less commonly, a few hours earlier, based on commercial and customer demand and when loads need to move.
• Night shift crews are expected to be as flexible as day shift crews.