Software Engineer - Control Center
Applied Intuition is hiring a Software Engineer - Control Center in Sunnyvale, United States. It pays $135k-$185k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Applied Intuition.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
- The posting mentions C, Python and Kubernetes among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a mid-level role.
- Applied Intuition has 321 other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
Build low-latency backend systems and control center platforms for autonomous vehicle fleets.
Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co.
We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions
About the roleAs a Software Engineer on the Control Center team, you will build the central operational platform that connects autonomous vehicle fleets to human operators across a wide range of industries including mining, commercial trucking, defense, industrial automation, and consumer AVs.
Control Center acts as the central nervous system for autonomous operations, handling everything from continuous telemetry ingestion and real-time digital twins to mission orchestration, safety-critical geofencing, and site-wide path planning.
In this role, you will own core platform domains end-to-end, building low-latency, ultra-reliable backend systems that scale across diverse vehicle types and operational environments-from public cloud deployments to air-gapped, on-premise sites.
At Applied Intuition, you will:Architect, implement, scale, and maintain critical control center subsystems - from high-throughput telemetry ingestion to live asset state tracking and mission orchestration
Design cloud and edge services where performance and correctness directly impact physical safety, including geofence enforcement, proximity alerts, and remote mission execution
Collaborate directly with autonomy, perception, and vehicle-platform teams to establish robust APIs, data protocols, and state synchronization frameworks
Build resilient data pipelines and APIs that transform high-volume vehicle metrics, logs, and state updates into actionable, queryable intelligence for customers
Deploy, observe, and harden SaaS services operating across public cloud, private infrastructure, and air-gapped on-premise environments
Partner with field engineers and deployment leads to debug live fleet operations, resolve real-world edge cases, and continuously close the feedback loop on platform reliability
Bachelor's degree in a related field
Proven backend/systems expertise: 4+ years of experience designing, building, and operating production distributed systems using Go, C++ or Python.
Real-time data experience: Hands-on experience with high-throughput streaming architectures, event-driven systems, or time-series data management (e.g., Kafka, gRPC, time-series DBs).
Strong system design & API instincts: Mastery of data modeling, API design, and distributed consensus, with a sharp focus on reliability, fault tolerance, and security.
Production ownership mindset: Comfort managing the full software lifecycle—including CI/CD, telemetry/observability, on-call rotations, and root-cause analysis for edge-case failure modes.
Product ownership in ambiguous spaces: Ability to take vague requirements, break down complex domain problems, and execute pragmatic trade-offs in a fast-paced environment.
Cross-functional collaboration: Excellent communication skills with a track record of bridging technical gaps between cloud software and hardware platforms
Familiarity with robotics protocols and middleware (CAN, MQTT, DDS, SOME/IP).
Experience deploying on Kubernetes across cloud-hosted and air-gapped/on-prem environments.
Background in safety-critical, functional safety, or heavily regulated domains (e.g. mining, automotive, industrial automation).
Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package, which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage, 401k retirement benefits with employer match, learning and wellness stipends, and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.
Applied Intuition pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum intended target base salary for new hire salaries for the position. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience, credentials & certifications, educational attainment, skill level requirements, interview performance, and the level and scope of the position.
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471, Appendix A to Subpart A), relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.
FOR US-BASED ROLES: Applied Intuition is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive application and interview experience to applicants who are disabled veterans and other applicants with disabilities or medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations are available, requesting an accommodation will not affect your candidacy in any way, and you are not required to disclose the nature of your disability or medical condition in order to make a request. If you require an accommodation please contact careers@applied.co. We will work with you!
How we rate this
Software Engineer - Control Center at Applied Intuition rates 30 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Little AI. AI is not part of the work.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- This job starts at
- $135k
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting starts 19% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where backend was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where distributed systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where telemetry was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where routing was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where cloud services was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Backend, Distributed Systems, Telemetry, Routing, and Cloud Services. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
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