Senior Software Engineer, Decision & Planning Algorithm (Robotics)

Company Description

About Grab and Our Workplace

Grab is Southeast Asia's leading superapp. From getting your favourite meals delivered to helping you manage your finances and getting around town hassle-free, we've got your back with everything. In Grab, purpose gives us joy and habits build excellence, while harnessing the power of Technology and AI to deliver the mission of driving Southeast Asia forward by economically empowering everyone, with heart, hunger, honour, and humility.

Job Description

Get to Know the Team

The robotics team is a core part of Grab's long-term vision for urban embodied AI. Engineers own the full product lifecycle: co-designing and building hardware, developing control and machine-learning systems, and validating them in the real world and in production fleet operations. The environment is fast-moving and multidisciplinary—software, hardware, and data science work closely together to solve real problems at scale.

The team is executing an ambitious growth plan to expand the robot fleet across cities over the coming years, with a focus on efficient, safe, and reliable robot-assisted delivery to help address labor shortages in last-mile logistics.

With a base in Singapore and China, the team offers opportunities to work on cutting-edge autonomy, deploy systems in complex urban settings, and shape the future of last-mile logistics. If you care about measurable impact, large-scale systems, and cross-functional engineering, you will find meaningful challenges and strong room for career growth.

Get to Know the Role

You will contribute to decision and planning algorithms for indoor and outdoor, full-scenario delivery robots. As a senior engineer, we expect you to:

• Develop a deep understanding of planning approaches and where they apply;
• Take part in scenario breakdown, algorithm design discussions, and implementation;
• Debug issues in simulation and on-vehicle tests, quantify performance after release, and drive continuous improvement.

We look for solid theory, strong engineering execution, and consistent, high-quality delivery.

The Critical Tasks You Will Perform

• Help design global routing and decision & motion planning systems that are safe and efficient while maintaining ride quality.
• Research and advance full-scenario driving on urban public roads and semi-enclosed campus roads, including structured and unstructured roads, signalized and unsignalized intersections, crosswalks, dynamic conditions (congestion, construction), and queueing in large dispatch areas.
• Research and advance nonlinear, multi-objective planning in unstructured indoor settings: tight spaces, elevators, and dense pedestrian flows.
• Contribute to quantitative metrics and a data closed loop, and expand automated test coverage.
• Contribute to data-driven, end-to-end planning R&D and scenario optimization.

Qualifications

What Essential Skills You Will Need

• Master's degree or above in CS, AI, applied math, automotive engineering, or a related field; 3–5 years of R&D experience in planning algorithms for autonomy or robotics.
• Strong C++; proficient Python and Linux; experience with ROS / ROS2 or Apollo / Autoware.
• Algorithms
  • Solid knowledge of classical decision & planning methods (e.g. Lattice, DP/QP, Hybrid A*, POMDP-style approaches).
  • Hands-on experience with joint lateral–longitudinal planning in real scenarios.
  • 3+ years of experience with decision & planning under game-theoretic or interactive settings.
  • Familiarity with ML for planning (e.g. imitation learning, reinforcement learning).
• Experience in innovating for real-world constraints.
• Domain
  • Familiarity with layered autonomous driving planning stacks.
  • Experience with how upstream modules affect planning and how to measure trajectory quality.
• Tools & simulation
  • Use CARLA, NVIDIA Isaac (including Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab, etc.) or comparable platforms for algorithm validation.
  • On-vehicle debugging and log analysis.
• Nice to have
  • Publications at top venues (e.g. ICRA, IROS, IV, CVPR).
  • Experience shipping end-to-end planning to production or field trials.

Additional Information

Life at Grab

We care about your well-being at Grab, here are some of the global benefits we offer:

• We have your back with Term Life Insurance and comprehensive Medical Insurance.
• With GrabFlex, create a benefits package that suits your needs and aspirations.
• Celebrate moments that matter in life with loved ones through Parental and Birthday leave, and give back to your communities through Love-all-Serve-all (LASA) volunteering leave
• We have a confidential Grabber Assistance Programme to guide and uplift you and your loved ones through life's challenges.
• Balancing personal commitments and life's demands are made easier with our FlexWork arrangements such as differentiated hours

What We Stand For at Grab

We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace that enables diverse Grabbers to grow and perform at their best. As an equal opportunity employer, we consider all candidates fairly and equally regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, family commitments, physical and mental impairments or disabilities, and other attributes that make them unique.