Senior Hardware Engineer, Lidar
Pittsburgh, PA, Palo Alto, CA, Detroit, MI On-site
$191,920–$287,880 a yearJobFig found this opening at its original source and checks that it remains available.
About the role
Latitude AI ( lat.ai ) is building the future of Ford’s autonomy roadmap to make travel safer, less stressful, and more enjoyable for everyone. Bringing this vision to scale, our fully in-house developed hands-free ADAS platform will debut on Ford’s all-new Universal Electric Vehicle in 2027. When you join the Latitude team, you’ll work alongside leading experts across machine learning and robotics, cloud platforms, mapping, sensors and compute systems, test operations, systems and safety engineering – all dedicated to redefining the relationship between people and their vehicles for millions of customers.
What you'll bring
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics or a related field and 7+ years of relevant experience (or Master's degree and 5+ years of relevant experience, or PhD and 2+ years of relevant experience)
- 8+ years of experience in automotive sensing, with deep hands-on expertise in either radar or lidar and demonstrated technical leadership on complex hardware programs
- Radar: RF fundamentals, range/Doppler/angle estimation, resolution, interference, multipath, ghosting, calibration, synchronization, and environmental effects
- Lidar: time-of-flight or FMCW fundamentals, ranging accuracy, reflectivity effects, point cloud quality, contamination, weather impacts, optical alignment, calibration, and environmental robustness
- Strong scripting and analysis capability in python, including hands-on use of NumPy, pandas, Jupyter, and similar tools to parse logs, evaluate sensor performance, trend issues, and build repeatable analysis workflows
- Ability to work directly with sensor data and debug artifacts, including supplier logs, raw captures, decoded outputs, and vehicle test datasets, and determine whether the data is complete, valid, and physically credible
- Practical experience with day-to-day engineering tools such as Wireshark/PCAP analysis, CAN tools (CANoe/CANalyzer or similar), ROS/rosbag or equivalent logging frameworks, point cloud or radar visualization tools, and common automotive data interfaces such as CAN, CAN FD, and automotive Ethernet
- Ability to independently judge whether supplier test results are correct by evaluating test setup, calibration state, ground truth method, statistical significance, repeatability, boundary conditions, applied filters, KPI definitions, and consistency with known sensor behavior
- Ability to lead and critically assess technical design reviews (TDRs) by identifying weak assumptions, incomplete validation, inconsistent requirements traceability, misleading metrics, and conclusions that are not supported by the underlying data
- Experience translating system and perception needs into sensor requirements, validation methods, and supplier deliverables
- Experience working across hardware, firmware, systems, perception, validation, manufacturing, and supplier teams to drive root cause and resolution
- Strong technical judgment and communication skills, with the ability to make and defend tradeoffs across performance, cost, timing, integration, and reliability