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# Staff Software Engineer

- **Company:** Hayden Ai Technologies Inc.
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $230,522 - $299,679
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Computing Platforms, Architectural Patterns, Computer Vision, C++ (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Object Detection, State Estimation, Sensor Fusion, Software Engineering, Reliability of Systems, Information Technology, C++14
- **Published:** November 7, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.juju.com/job/28_25304_92538dc5b29a551d48cc8c57ee293cfe

## About the Role

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Perception team, you will be a key technical leader, defining and driving the long-term vision and architecture for our perception systems in forthcoming pilots, directly influencing Hayden's mission and roadmap for business expansion.

This role requires deep expertise in computer vision and/or robotics algorithms that are deployed on the edge/cloud. You will be responsible for setting the technical direction and standards for the team, architecting complex, scalable, and robust end-to-end perception and robotics systems for deployment on real-world hardware, and ensuring their successful integration into Hayden's core product platform.

This is a C++ software engineering position demanding both hands-on technical mastery and significant architectural and systems leadership. You will operate with complete technical ownership over major system components, mentoring junior and senior engineers, driving complex cross-functional initiatives, and making critical trade-off decisions that balance bleeding-edge innovation, system reliability, performance, and long-term maintainability across the entire Perception stack., * Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.

 * 10+ years of relevant experience in building and deploying perception systems; experience in automotive or robotics domains is a plus.
 * Deep expertise in one or more of: robotics, state estimation, computer vision, or applied machine learning.
 * Extensive experience leading large, complex, production-grade systems end-to-end.
 * Expert-level proficiency in modern C++, including experience with real-time and/or embedded systems.
 * Proven track record of technical leadership and architectural ownership across multiple projects or teams.
 * Experience scaling systems from prototype to production in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
 * Strong ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across teams.
 * Demonstrated mentorship and ability to raise the bar for engineering quality across an organization.

## Description

* Spearhead the architectural design, implementation, and long-term ownership of next-generation perception systems, ensuring seamless transition from research prototypes to robust, scalable production solutions.
 * Champion best practices in software development, delivering high-performance, meticulously tested, and maintainable C++ code optimized for heterogeneous edge and robotics computing platforms.
 * Architect and optimize high-throughput, real-time perception pipelines, setting the technical direction for advanced techniques in object detection, tracking, and sophisticated sensor fusion
 * Drive the strategic selection, adaptation, and integration of state-of-the-art Machine Learning (ML) and Computer Vision (CV) models, including the development of novel, proprietary models tailored to complex, large-scale Hayden-specific problems.
 * Provide technical leadership in highly ambiguous and complex problem domains, defining the technical roadmap and consistently striking the optimal balance between rapid iteration for R&D and the rigorous requirements for productization and scale.
 * Act as a key technical liaison, collaborating strategically with Product leadership and setting technical standards across cross-functional Engineering organizations.
 * Define and significantly contribute to foundational shared infrastructure, tooling, and architectural patterns, scaling pilot initiatives into core, mission-critical product capabilities.