Helping Autonomous Vehicles Understand Humans: Our Portfolio Company Perceptive Automata is Hiring
Based in Boston, our portfolio company Perceptive Automata is tackling a major problem: helping autonomous vehicles (AVs) better understand humans. Traditionally, human drivers make critical intuitive judgments about the intentions of others and signal to one another in subtle ways — such as eye contact, posture, and head movements. However, machines lack the ability to interpret these visual cues. Perceptive Automata’s software is designed to enable AVs to operate more smoothly in reaction to other drivers, pedestrians, or cyclists.
Perceptive Automata joined the Toyota AI Ventures portfolio in 2018, and the company is currently hiring for a number of key engineering roles. If you are interested in using an understanding of human behavior, computer vision, and machine learning to make AVs safer, check out these two roles that are currently available on the Toyota AI Ventures job board: Software Engineering Manager, Data Pipeline, and Senior Software Engineer, Sensors.
Software Engineering Manager, Data Pipeline (Boston, MA)
Perceptive Automata’s data pipeline is central to the company’s work in the areas of human behavior, computer vision, and machine learning. In this role, you will help evolve and scale Perceptive’s data efforts by leading a small (but growing) team that is responsible for this pipeline. In particular, you will oversee and provide technical guidance on efforts related to the collection, management, processing, and security of all data.
The ideal candidate has a bachelor’s degree and/or a master’s degree in computer science (or equivalent experience), as well as more than five years of experience with commercial software development using Python. Solid software design skills are a must, as well as experience working with relational databases, containerization, workload orchestration, on-premises and cloud-based data storage and processing. You should also be familiar with data security practices and have a track record of planning and delivering on development milestones. Experience managing software engineers and working at a startup is a bonus.
Senior Software Engineer, Sensors (Boston, MA)
Perceptive Automata is looking for a senior software engineer of sensors to oversee the selection, installation, and maintenance of the various sensors and other hardware used on data collection vehicles, including cameras, LiDAR, RADAR, Onboard Data (OBD) systems, and Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). In this role, you will develop, implement, and test the software that will collect and process the raw data from these sensors into a form that can be integrated with other data sources in the environment.
You will maintain the stream of data that feeds critical infrastructure, and manage sensor drivers, calibration, data capture, serialization, storage, communication, and transport of data. This role is critical in bridging the gap between the sensor hardware and the software processing fundamental to the successful operation of Perceptive’s software on AVs.
Candidates should have a bachelor’s degree and/or a master’s degree in computer science, robotics, or electrical engineering (or equivalent work experience). Strong Python and C++ programming skills are a must, with at least five years of experience building software for commercial or research purposes. You need experience with a wide range of sensor tools and software, including a variety of cameras, LiDAR, and IMUs. You should also have the ability to manage the calibration of cameras/depth sensors, the programmatic interfacing with cameras and sensors, and the efficient storage and collection of large data files.
Experience developing a commercial AV stack is a plus, as is familiarity with machine learning topics, real-time interprocess communication frameworks, and perception.
Learn more about a career at Perceptive Automata and explore other job opportunities on the Toyota AI Ventures jobs board. A number of our portfolio companies are also recruiting right now, so be sure to sign up for the Toyota AI Ventures Talent Network.
