Senior/Staff Software Engineer – Localization (Visual Odometry)

Who we are

Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation.

The company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior or Staff Software Engineer with a strong background in Visual Odometry (VO) and Localization to join our autonomy team. This role is critical to building precise, real-time vehicle localization systems using camera-based perception for autonomous driving applications. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience deploying VO systems in real-world environments, particularly in the autonomous vehicle (AV) domain, and brings solid C++ engineering skills to architect robust, high-performance software solutions.

This role is onsite 5 days per week at our Santa Clara, CA office.

What you'll do

• Design and develop real-time Visual Odometry pipelines using monocular, stereo, or RGB-D camera inputs.
• Implement robust camera-based localization algorithms, including visual-inertial odometry (VIO), feature tracking, motion estimation, and scale recovery.
• Integrate VO systems with IMU, GPS, and other sensor data to enhance pose estimation accuracy and stability.
• Collaborate with the mapping, perception, and control teams to integrate localization with the AV software stack.
• Develop and optimize production-quality code in modern C++ for real-time performance on embedded compute platforms.
• Analyze system performance in diverse environmental conditions and drive improvements for reliability, accuracy, and robustness.
• Participate in code reviews, mentor team members, and contribute to architectural decisions.
• Stay up to date with the latest research in SLAM, VIO, and VO, and help transition promising techniques into production

What we're looking for

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in robotics, computer vision, or autonomy; 3+ years specifically in Visual Odometry or VIO.
• Experience working on Autonomous Vehicle platforms (e.g., development, testing, or deployment of AV systems).
• Expert proficiency in C++ (C++14/17/20) and modern software engineering best practices.
• Solid understanding of epipolar geometry, camera calibration, bundle adjustment, and optimization techniques.
• Hands-on experience with open-source VO/SLAM libraries such as ORB-SLAM, VINS-Fusion, OpenVINS, or similar.
• Experience working with ROS/ROS2, Linux development environments, and version control systems.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience integrating visual odome