Technical Lead Manager - Perception, Self-Driving Systems
AI summary of the role
Lead the perception model at the core of Applied Intuition's autonomy stack — a single combined model serving all SDS programs across passenger cars, trucking, mining, and defense.
No longer in the current catalog. Last included 2026-09-09. Check the employer’s posting for availability.
What you’ll do
- Own the perception model end-to-end: architecture, training, evaluation, and deployment across geographies and sensor configurations.
- Drive a camera-first perception strategy to progressively reduce dependencies on HD maps and lidar.
- Lead training and iteration cycles hands-on, including data analysis, eval dashboards, and failure analysis.
- Manage the model lifecycle from training through quantization and deployment on embedded compute with device-specific optimizations.
What you’ll bring
- 5+ years in ML/deep learning for perception or 3D scene understanding with hands-on experience training and deploying vision models at scale.
- 2+ years managing or technically leading a perception team, contributing to both direction and architecture.
- Experience building production perception systems, especially camera-only or camera-first solutions.
- Track record deploying perception models to embedded hardware under real-time latency and compute constraints.
Technologies
perception · deep learning · camera-first · embedded compute · Python · C++ · transformer-based architectures · BEV representations · multi-task learning · quantization
About Applied Intuition
Builds the toolchain, vehicle OS and autonomy stacks that automakers, defense and off-road OEMs use to ship AI-driven vehicles.
Series F
Source and classification
Internal deployment & tooling · Evidence for this classification:
our expectation is that employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. About the role Applied Intuition builds the software infrastructure for autonomous vehicles across passenger cars, trucking, mining, and defense. Our Self-Driving Systems (SDS) team develops production-grade autonomy stacks deployed on real vehicles across multiple continents, from highway trucking in Japan to urban ADAS in the United States and Europe. We are looking for a Technical Lead Manager to own the perception model at the core of our autonomy stack. This is a single combined
More from the job description
About Applied Intuition Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co. We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. About the role Applied Intuition builds the software infrastructure for autonomous vehicles [... source excerpt omitted ...] Angeles, a truck in rural Japan, and an offroad vehicle in the Philippines. Different sensor configurations, different road geometries, different weather distributions, one model. You will lead the team that trains, evaluates, and ships this model, and you will be hands-on in the architecture and training decisions that drive its performance. At Applied Intuition, you will: Own the perception model end-to-end: architecture, training, evaluation, and deployment. The core challenge is building a model that generalizes across geographies, road types, sensor setups, and environmental conditions without per-vertical forks. Drive a camera-first perception strategy. The goal is to pr [... source excerpt omitted ...] eployment on embedded compute, including device-specific optimizations. Close the gap between what the model does offboard and what it does on the vehicle. Work directly with OEM customer programs to understand sensor configurations, target ODDs, and performance requirements. Translate these into model architecture and data strategy. Recruit, develop, and technically lead a team of perception engineers. Set high technical standards and create a culture of rigorous experimentation and measurement. We’re looking for someone who has: 5+ years in ML/deep learning for perception or 3D scene understanding. Deep hands-on experience training and deploying vision models at scale. 2+
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