Director, Perception - Autonomous Vehicles

Location: US, CA, Santa Clara

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Achieving what has never been accomplished requires foresight, creativity, and the finest talent worldwide! We are looking for a driven Director of Perception to help lead our AI model evolution. In this critical leadership role, you will drive the development of state-of-the-art deep learning models that enable our vehicles to see, understand, and navigate complex environments. You will lead teams pushing the boundaries of modern network architectures to deliver a robust, real-time 3D world model. If you are a relentless problem-solver who thrives on building world-class teams and shipping production AI, we want to hear from you.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead and Inspire: Manage, mentor, and scale a high-performing organization of engineering managers, applied researchers, and software engineers dedicated to autonomous vehicle perception.

• Drive the Architecture: Guide the strategic direction, design, and execution of modern network architectures (e.g., Transformers, BEV, Occupancy Networks, Vision-Language-Action models) for multi-sensor fusion (camera, LiDAR, radar) and real-time 3D world reconstruction.

• End-to-End Ownership: Oversee the entire machine learning lifecycle—from active learning, data mining, and synthetic data generation to model training, model performance acceleration, and deployment on NVIDIA DRIVE platforms (Orin/Thor).

• Cross-Functional Teamwork: Partner closely with leaders across Planning and Control, Mapping, Hardware, and Safety teams to ensure seamless integration of the perception stack and alignment on AV system-level metrics.

• Cultivate Excellence: Foster a culture of radical ownership, high-velocity execution, and continuous innovation. Ensure all algorithms and production code adhere to strict automotive quality and safety standards (e.g., ISO 26262).

What we need to see:

• Ph.D. or master's degree in computer science, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, visual computing, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

• 10+ overall years of industry experience in deep learning, computer vision, or autonomous robotics, with at least 5+ years in a senior leadership role managing large teams or multiple layers of management.

• Deep, hands-on theoretical and practical expertise with modern network architectures (Transformers, CNNs, Foundation Models) and complex multi-sensor fusion paradigms.

• A proven track record of successfully deploying production-grade, safety-critical machine learning models to edge/embedded computing platforms.

• Strong foundational knowledge in Python, C++, and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow).

• Exceptional communication and leadership skills. You must be able to distill complex technical uncertainty into clear, actionable strategies for both your team and executive leadership.

• A highly motivated, entrepreneurial mindset. You possess a relentless drive to solve the hardest problems in the AV space and the energy to lead a team through the challenges of shipping bleeding-edge technology.

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

• Demonstrated success in shipping autonomous vehicle software to mass-production.

• A recognized presence in the global AI/CV community, evidenced by top-tier publications (CVPR, ICCV, NeurIPS) or significant open-source contributions.

• Hands-on experience with next-generation paradigms, such as end-to-end autonomous driving architectures, Large Vision Models (LVMs), or sim-to-real transfer techniques.

• Deep understanding of hardware-software co-design, specifically optimizing modern networks for NVIDIA GPU architectures.

NVIDIA is widely considered to be one of the technology world’s most desirable employers. We have some of the most forward-thinking and dedicated people in the world working here. If you're creative and autonomous, we want to hear from you!

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 320,000 USD - 488,750 USD.Applications for this job will be accepted at least until March 16, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy. 

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.