Staff Software Engineer

What the job involves

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.

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

Responsibilities

• 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.

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in building and deploying perception systems; experience in automotive or robotics domains is a plus.
• Deep expertise in one or more of: robotics, state estimation, computer vision, or applied machine learning.
• Extensive experience leading large, complex, production-grade systems end-to-end.
• Expert-level proficiency in modern C++, including experience with real-time and/or embedded systems.
• Proven track record of technical leadership and architectural ownership across multiple projects or teams.
• Experience scaling systems from prototype to production in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• 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.