Director, Systems Engineering at Nuro in Mountain View, CA

Who We Are Nuro is a self-driving technology company on a mission to make autonomy accessible to all. Founded in 2016, Nuro is building the world’s most scalable driver, combining cutting-edge AI with automotive-grade hardware. Nuro licenses its core technology, the Nuro Driver™, to support a wide range of applications, from robotaxis and commercial fleets to personally owned vehicles. With technology proven over years of self-driving deployments, Nuro gives the automakers and mobility platforms a clear path to AVs at commercial scale, empowering a safer, richer, and more connected future. About the Role Nuro is looking for a Director of Systems Engineering to lead a high-caliber team responsible for defining, analyzing, validating, and improving the performance of the Nuro Driver across complex hardware and software systems. Systems Engineering sits at the center of how we turn ambitious autonomy goals into clear technical requirements, measurable performance targets, and verified system behavior on public roads. This team partners deeply across behavior, sensing, perception, prediction, planning, hardware, safety, test, and product to ensure the NuroDriver™  performs reliably in the real world and can scale across vehicle platforms and commercial use cases. In this role, you will lead teams responsible for translating critical use cases into system requirements, conducting rigorous analyses and trade studies, informing architectural decisions, and ensuring our verification strategy establishes that the system meets the bar required for safe, scalable deployment. You will be expected to operate with strong technical depth, excellent judgment, and the leadership ability to build, coach, and raise the bar for a high-performing engineering team. About the Work Lead and grow a team of Systems Engineers responsible for translating NuroDriver product and deployment goals into clear system requirements, measurable performance targets, validation strategies, and architecture tradeoffs across autonomy software, sensing hardware, safety, and real-world operations. Decompose critical autonomy use cases into actionable requirements for sensors, sensing systems, perception systems, and broader autonomy system behavior. Establish clear performance standards for complex hardware and software systems operating in real-world autonomous driving environments. Conduct technical analyses to determine required performance levels across sensing, perception, and other autonomy-critical capabilities. Lead trade studies that inform hardware architecture, software architecture, sensor configuration, system design, and deployment readiness. Partner closely with Systems Test Engineering and other verification teams to ensure test strategies, results, and coverage are sufficient to validate critical requirements. Collaborate deeply with engineering leaders across autonomy, AI, hardware, safety, product, and operations to guide prioritization and refine technical deliverables. Build scalable systems engineering practices that improve clarity, execution speed, technical rigor, and cross-functional decision-making. Mentor and develop individual contributors and managers, raising the bar for technical judgment, ownership, and execution quality. Recruit, hire, and onboard exceptional systems engineering talent. Create a team environment where high standards, strong collaboration, technical excellence, and direct feedback allow people to do their best work. Bring innovative and pragmatic approaches to deep technical challenges across the hardware, software, and AI systems required for autonomous driving About You You are a technical leader who can operate across abstraction levels, from high-level system architecture and safety-critical requirements down to detailed performance analysis and verification strategy. You are comfortable leading through complexity, making tradeoffs with imperfect information, and partnering across disciplines to drive high-quality decisions. You have: 7+ years of systems engineering experience, with demonstrated delivery of complex systems against internal or external milestones. 5+ years of direct management experience, with a track record of building and leading high-performing engineering teams. Experience managing managers and scaling teams Strong systems engineering fundamentals, including requirements definition, system decomposition, verification and validation methods, and performance analysis. Experience working on complex hardware and software systems, ideally in autonomy, robotics, automotive, aerospace, defense, or another safety-critical domain. Strong technical judgment and the ability to make pragmatic architectural and prioritization tradeoffs. Experience partnering across software, hardware, test, safety, and product teams to drive system-level outcomes. A bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering or technical field such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Controls, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent practical experience. Bonus Points Deep technical knowledge of modern perception systems and the ML techniques that power them. Experience with multiple sensing modalities such as cameras, radar, lidar, ultrasonics, or other autonomy-relevant sensors. Experience with autonomous driving, robotics, advanced driver assistance systems, or safety-critical AI systems. Software development experience in C++, Python, or related technical environments. Experience building verification strategies for systems deployed in real-world, safety-critical environments. Experience influencing technical roadmaps and architectural decisions across large, cross-functional engineering organizations At Nuro, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. For this position, the reasonably expected base pay range is between $258,000.00 and $387,000.00 for the level at which this job has been scoped. Your base pay will depend on several factors, including your experience, qualifications, education, location, and skills. In the event that you are considered for a different level, a higher or lower pay range would apply. This position is also eligible for an annual performance bonus, equity, and a competitive benefits package. At Nuro, we celebrate differences and are committed to a diverse workplace that fosters inclusion and psychological safety for all employees. Nuro is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and expressly prohibits any form of workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics. #LI-DNP