Staff Software Engineer - Core Services

Who we are

Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

The Aurora Driver will create a new era in mobility and logistics, one that will bring a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future to everyone.

At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge. For the latest news from Aurora, visit or follow us on LinkedIn.

What we are looking for

The Aurora Services Engineering org creates full-stack solutions including backend services, web apps, mobile apps, and real-time onboard code that enable commercial operation of autonomous vehicle fleets at scale. Our mission is to build the software that drives the commercial side of our platform such as assigning work to autonomous vehicles, providing remote support, managing a fleet of vehicles, and receiving orders from customers. As Aurora prepares to massively scale its fleet and integrate with partners on an API level, the tools we build are critical to the efficient daily operation of our business.

We are looking for a Staff Engineer to join the Core Services team under Aurora Services. You will help the Aurora Services Org to build the new asset management solution to scale up the autonomous vehicles fleet.

In this role you will

• Design complex systems from the ground up. Partnering closely with Software, Hardware and infrastructure engineering teams.

• Partner with Product Managers, Designers and Operation Stakeholders to deliver the benefit of Self Driving Vehicles quickly, safely and broadly.

• Design, implement and maintain a micro-backend architecture running in the Aurora’s AWS cloud used to monitor and manage the entire Aurora Commercial Fleet.

• Design, implement the fleet management solution and the vehicle communication system.

• Establish technology and infrastructure to scale our products with high availability and reliability.

• Contribute and evolve our team culture around mentorship, feedback,collaboration, and engineering excellence.

Required qualifications

• 7 or more years of experience in building backend services.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science or a related field.

• Experience with web communication protocols, including REST, gRPC and GraphQL.

• Experience with building large scale, high concurrent, high throughput and safety critical backend services.

• Phenomenal communication skills. We build software with people and for people. You know how to write an effective technical spec, provide feedback to others, translate technical concepts into lay terms, and incorporate feedback into your efforts. You value and practice openness, empathy, kindness, and collaboration.

• A preference for action. You will use good judgment to balance speed and quality. You will deliver products that are built in a responsible and sustainable way. You will use a self-starter mentality to thrive in a growing environment where all hands are on deck, and consider no obstacle too big or too small. You will notice where there is a need and will hustle to fill it.

• The drive to make teams stronger. You're excited to work hard and fast to the finish line on new opportunities with a collaborative and integrated team. You will be proactive in engaging conflict with openness, patience and kindness in an environment where it is safe to lean on each other and learn from failures.

• Motivation to own the product lifecycle end to end. You’re happy to engage with our product and design teams and our internal customers to understand their needs and find ways to meet them. You ensure that product development stays on course all the way through release and post-release support.

Desirable qualifications

• Experience with embedded autonomous vehicle development.

• Experience with IoT, real time communication between devices and cloud.

• Experience with application release strategies such as feature flagging, A/B testing and canary release.

• Experience with observability and monitoring of safety critical systems.

• Experience with fleet management solutions for Robots, Vehicles or Aerial Drones.

• Experience with external customer facing software including production rollout with real customers.

• Experience with safety and mission critical applications.

For roles based in Mountain View, CA and San Francisco: The salary range for this position is $189,000 - $303,000 per year.

For roles based in Pittsburgh, PA: The salary range for this position is $171,000 - $273,000 per year.

Aurora’s pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, the successful candidate’s starting base pay will be determined based on factors including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, relevant education or training, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future. The successful candidate will also be eligible for an annual bonus, equity compensation, and benefits.

Working at Aurora

At Aurora, we bring together extraordinarily talented and experienced people united by the strength of our values. We operate with integrity, set outrageous goals, and build a culture where we win together — all without any jerks.

We believe in-person work increases collaboration, empathy, and our ability to lead effectively. As a result, Aurorans are expected to work from the office at least 3 days per week, with some roles requiring more frequent in-office presence, up to 5 days per week, based on operational needs.

Our Careers page provides insight into what it is like to work at Aurora, and you can find all the latest updates in our Newsroom.

Our commitment to safety

At the core of everything we do is our commitment to safety. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and we believe that each employee at Aurora has a role in contributing to safety, every step of the way. Aurora expects commitment to our safety policies from every employee, and seeks candidates who take an active responsibility, can contribute to building an atmosphere of trust, and invest in the organization’s long-term success by prioritizing working safely, no matter what.

Our commitment to inclusion

Aurora considers candidates without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy status, parent or caregiver status, ancestry, political affiliation, veteran and/or military status, physical or mental disability, or any other status protected by federal or state law. Aurora considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected].

For California applicants, information collected and processed as part of your application and any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Aurora’s California Employment Privacy Policy.