Lead ML Engineer - Mapping

May Mobility is transforming cities through autonomous technology to create a safer, greener, more accessible world. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, May develops and deploys autonomous vehicles (AVs) powered by our innovative Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology that literally reimagines the way AVs think.

Our vehicles do more than just drive themselves - they provide value to communities, bridge public transit gaps and move people where they need to go safely, easily and with a lot more fun. We’re building the world’s best autonomy system to reimagine transit by minimizing congestion, expanding access and encouraging better land use in order to foster more green, vibrant and livable spaces. Since our founding in 2017, we’ve given more than 500,000 autonomous rides to real people around the globe. And we’re just getting started. We’re hiring people who share our passion for building the future, today, solving real-world problems and seeing the impact of their work. Join us.

The Autonomy Mapping & Localization group's mission is to provide our vehicles with world-class spatial intelligence, semantic and topological mapping, and state estimation to model and navigate complex urban, suburban, and rural environments. We are looking for a Lead ML Engineer to join our team and architect the next generation of our mapping and localization stack. As the Lead ML Engineer for Mapping, you will be at the forefront of this mission, building the production-grade semantic and topological foundation that allows our vehicles to understand and navigate the world's most challenging roads at scale.

Essential Responsibilities

• Architect, design, and implement a production-grade lane and route network mapping stack, ensuring high-performance integration with the broader autonomy system
• Lead the research, design, training and validation of advanced neural architectures. This includes object detection, classification, segmentation, tracking, depth estimation, and 3D reconstruction to extract and model lane and route networks, alongside key semantic features (e.g., traffic signs, signals, and road markings), for automated mapping.
• Drive major feature development from inception to deployment. This includes high-level architecture design, rigorous code reviews, automated testing, mentorship of junior engineers, and technical resolution.
• Own the end-to-end data strategy for the mapping domain. You will define data curation, auto-labeling, synthetic data, and active learning pipelines to capture and resolve long-tail scenarios.
• Develop robust metrics and evaluation frameworks for lane and route network accuracy, temporal consistency, and scaling across diverse Operational Design Domains (ODDs).
• Work independently with cross-functional teams to translate complex autonomy goals into clear software and system requirements.
• Collaborate with ML and Autonomy engineers to ensure the seamless deployment and validation of mapping features to the vehicle fleet.
• Stay at the research frontier by evaluating, adapting, and innovating cutting-edge techniques. This includes online vectorized HD map construction, end-to-end mapping models, and vision/fusion foundation models to deliver production-ready solutions.

Qualifications and Experience

Candidates most successful in this role typically hold the following qualifications or comparable knowledge or experience:

Required

• Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field with a strong mathematical and engineering foundation.
• 7+ years of industry experience developing and deploying ML/DL models for mapping or computer vision at scale.
• Deep expertise in several of the following areas:
• Computer Vision Foundations: Object detection, classification, segmentation, tracking, depth estimation, and 3D reconstruction.
• Lane-level topology and connectivity, intersection modeling, and lane/road network graph construction.
• Vectorized mapping networks (e.g., MapTR), BEV-based scene representation, and temporal modeling.
• Self-supervised/semi-supervised and vision/fusion Foundation Models.
• Strong understanding of HD maps, including lane and road network geometry modeling, connectivity, and semantic attributes.
• Expertise in ML/DL development using PyTorch or TensorFlow, including experience with distributed training, synthetic data generation, large-scale dataset handling, and data curation strategies.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++ with experience in modular software design and Linux-based development.
• Proven leadership in guiding technical roadmaps, mentoring engineers, and driving measurable improvements in model performance and system reliability.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to lead technical discussions and align with cross-functional teams.

Desirable

• 10+ years of experience in ML/DL for autonomous driving or ADAS systems.
• Experience with feature extraction and/or fusion from both street-level and overhead imagery.
• Experience utilizing Vision-Language Models (VLMs) and/or Foundation Models for auto-labeling and long-tail (edge-case) detection.
• Expertise in ML optimization for real-time products with limited compute, such as quantization and pruning of large transformer models.
• A proven record of inventions and/or publication record at top-tier conferences (e.g., CVPR, NeurIPS, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR).

Physical Requirements

• Standard office working conditions which includes but is not limited to:
• Prolonged sitting
• Prolonged standing
• Prolonged computer use
• Travel required? - Moderate: 11%-25%

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Benefits and Perks

• Comprehensive healthcare suite including medical, dental, vision, life, and disability plans. Domestic partners who have been residing together at least one year are also eligible to participate.
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Healthcare and Dependent Care Accounts available.
• Rich retirement benefits, including an immediately vested employer safe harbor match.
• Generous paid parental leave as well as a phased return to work.
• Flexible vacation policy in addition to paid company holidays.
• Total Wellness Program providing numerous resources for overall wellbeing

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and/or people of color are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet every qualification. At May Mobility, we’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workforce, so if you’re excited about this role but your previous experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway! You may be the perfect candidate for this or another role at May.

Want to learn more about our culture & benefits? Check out our website!

May Mobility is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants for employment will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetics or any other legally protected basis. Below, you have the opportunity to share your preferred gender pronouns, gender, ethnicity, and veteran status with May Mobility to help us identify areas of improvement in our hiring and recruitment processes. Completion of these questions is entirely voluntary. Any information you choose to provide will be kept confidential, and will not impact the hiring decision in any way. If you believe that you will need any type of accommodation, please let us know.

Note to Recruitment Agencies: May Mobility does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Furthermore, May Mobility does not pay placement fees for candidates submitted by any agency other than its approved partners.

Salary Range$225,000—$275,000 USD

Originally posted on Himalayas