What is a Machine Learning Engineer at AURORA?

At AURORA, the Machine Learning Engineer role is central to our mission of delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. You are not just training models in isolation; you are building the intelligence behind the Aurora Driver—a system designed to navigate complex environments with human-like fluidity and superhuman safety. This role sits at the intersection of rigorous research and high-stakes production engineering, directly impacting how our vehicles perceive the world, predict the behavior of others, and make safe driving decisions.

As an MLE here, you will tackle massively complex problems in areas such as Behavior Planning, Motion Simulation, and Perception. Whether you are developing large-scale models trained with Imitation Learning and Reinforcement Learning, architecting "world models" for our simulation engine, or building offboard critic models to evaluate driving behavior, your work defines the frontier of autonomous mobility. You will work alongside passionate teams in Pittsburgh, Mountain View, and remotely to bridge the gap between state-of-the-art ML research and the physical reality of the road.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation for AURORA requires a shift in mindset from pure academic ML to safety-critical engineering. The interview team looks for candidates who can balance theoretical depth with practical implementation skills. You should be prepared to discuss not just how a model works, but how it interacts with a larger robotic system.

Technical Proficiency & Coding Standards – 2–3 sentences describing: You must demonstrate strong fluency in Python for model development and, frequently, C++ for production deployment or onboard systems. Interviewers evaluate your ability to write clean, efficient, and production-ready code, not just script-level solutions.

Domain-Specific Problem Solving – 2–3 sentences describing: We assess your ability to apply ML concepts to robotics and autonomous driving scenarios, such as handling noisy sensor data or predicting rare edge cases. You need to show you can translate abstract business or safety requirements into concrete technical solutions.

Communication & Business Alignment – 2–3 sentences describing: A critical evaluation point is your ability to answer questions succinctly and tie technical decisions back to business requirements. Candidates are often evaluated on whether they can explain why a specific approach adds value to the Aurora Driver product, rather than just explaining the math.

Collaboration & Engineering Rigor – 2–3 sentences describing: Because our systems are highly integrated, we look for engineers who can work effectively with Safety, Perception, and Simulation teams. You should demonstrate a disciplined approach to testing, validation, and safety assurance.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process at AURORA is designed to be rigorous yet transparent, reflecting our commitment to safety and engineering excellence. Generally, the process begins with a recruiter screen to align on your background and interests, followed by a technical screen. This technical screen typically focuses on coding (often involving data structures or algorithms relevant to robotics) or a deep dive into your ML fundamentals.

If you pass the screening stage, you will move to the onsite loop (currently virtual). This stage is comprehensive, usually consisting of 4–5 separate rounds. You can expect a mix of coding interviews, a system design session focused on ML infrastructure or robotics problems, and a behavioral round centered on our company values. Unlike some generalist tech companies, AURORA interviewers often tailor questions to the specific team you are interviewing for, such as the Motion Simulation or Behavior Planning teams.

The timeline above illustrates the typical flow from application to offer. Candidates should use this visual to pace their preparation, ensuring they allocate enough time to refresh C++ skills and system design concepts before the onsite stage. Note that the duration between steps can vary depending on the specific team's hiring urgency.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

This section breaks down the core competencies you will be tested on. Based on candidate experiences and our engineering standards, you should prepare thoroughly for these specific areas.

Coding and Algorithms

Coding at AURORA is not just about getting the right answer; it is about writing code that is performant and safe. While Python is standard for ML, many teams (especially in planning and onboard systems) value C++ highly.

Be ready to go over:

• Data Structures – Proficiency with graphs, trees, and matrices is essential, as these structures often represent road networks and sensor data.
• Geometry and Math – Expect questions that may involve linear algebra or computational geometry (e.g., intersection of lines, 2D/3D transformations).
• Optimization – Writing code that minimizes latency is critical for a real-time safety system.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Implement an algorithm to smooth a trajectory for a vehicle given a set of waypoints."
• "Given a stream of sensor data, how would you efficiently filter outliers in real-time?"
• "Solve a pathfinding problem on a grid with dynamic obstacles."

Machine Learning Fundamentals

You need a strong grasp of the "first principles" of machine learning. Interviewers will probe your understanding of model architectures, loss functions, and training dynamics.

Be ready to go over:

• Model Selection – Justifying why you would choose a Transformer vs. an RNN vs. a CNN for a specific driving task.
• Training & Evaluation – Deep knowledge of overfitting, regularization, and specifically how to evaluate models when "accuracy" isn't enough (e.g., precision/recall in safety-critical scenarios).
• Generative Models – Understanding how to use generative approaches to create synthetic training data for simulation.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "How would you design a loss function that prioritizes safety over passenger comfort, or balances both?"
• "Explain how you would detect and mitigate data drift in a model deployed on a vehicle fleet."
• "Describe the trade-offs between Imitation Learning and Reinforcement Learning for behavior planning."

System Design & Robotics Domain

This is where AURORA differentiates itself. You will be asked to design systems that operate within the constraints of an autonomous vehicle.

Be ready to go over:

• Simulation & World Models – Designing systems that can simulate realistic traffic scenarios to test the planner.
• Data Pipelines – Architecting the flow of data from the car to the cloud for training and back to the car for inference.
• Metrics Design – Defining what "good driving" means mathematically (jerk, collision risk, progress).

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Design a system to predict the future trajectory of a pedestrian at a crosswalk."
• "How would you build an evaluation framework to validate a new motion planning model before it goes on the road?"
• "Architect a pipeline to mine 'interesting' edge cases from petabytes of driving logs."

Key Responsibilities

As a Machine Learning Engineer at AURORA, your day-to-day work is grounded in solving tangible, high-impact problems. You will spend a significant amount of time building and refining learned models used to develop and evaluate the Motion Planner. This involves working with large-scale simulations to test the vehicle's behavior in complex scenarios that are too dangerous or rare to test frequently in the real world.

Collaboration is a major part of the role. You will work closely with Behavior Planning, Perception, and Safety Engineering teams to understand requirements and inform your technical approach. For example, you might be tasked with building novel generative models to augment simulation data, creating unseen but realistic scenarios to train the system.

Beyond modeling, you are responsible for the infrastructure that supports it. This includes managing datasets, ensuring label quality, and building feature processing pipelines. You may also develop tools to visualize and introspect model performance, extracting insights that help the broader engineering team debug complex behaviors. Whether you are bridging research and production or optimizing code for onboard deployment, your work directly contributes to the safety and capability of the Aurora Driver.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be successful in this role, you need a blend of strong software engineering skills and deep ML knowledge.

• Must-have Technical Skills – You must have strong knowledge of ML fundamentals (training, evaluation, model design) and proficiency in Python. For many teams, C++ is also a strict requirement or a very strong plus, especially for roles involving onboard planning or high-performance simulation. Experience with frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow is assumed.
• Experience Level – We typically look for candidates who have experience building ML models from data preparation through to evaluation. Experience in Robotics, Simulation, or dealing with high-dimensional physical data is highly valued.
• Soft Skills – Independence and the ability to navigate ambiguity are critical. You must be able to communicate complex technical concepts to cross-functional stakeholders.
• Nice-to-have Skills – Experience with Imitation Learning, Reinforcement Learning, or Generative Models is a significant advantage for behavior planning roles. Knowledge of linear algebra, physics, or visualization tools (like Three.js or WebGL) can also be differentiators depending on the specific team.

Common Interview Questions

The following questions reflect the types of challenges you will face during the interview process. They are drawn from actual candidate experiences and are designed to test your ability to apply theory to our specific domain. Do not memorize answers; instead, focus on the problem-solving patterns they represent.

Machine Learning & Modeling

• "How would you approach training a model where the dataset is heavily imbalanced (e.g., thousands of miles of highway driving but only a few instances of a specific accident type)?"
• "Explain the vanishing gradient problem and how you would mitigate it in a deep recurrent network."
• "Compare and contrast the use of L1 vs. L2 regularization in the context of a perception model."
• "How would you use Imitation Learning to teach a car to merge onto a highway? What are the limitations of this approach?"

Coding & Algorithms (C++ / Python)

• "Write a function to determine if two moving bounding boxes will collide within a given time horizon."
• "Implement a sparse matrix multiplication algorithm optimized for memory usage."
• "Given a set of 3D points (LiDAR data), how would you efficiently cluster them to identify distinct objects?"
• "Design a class for a 'Trajectory' that supports efficient querying of points at specific timestamps."

System Design & Strategy

• "We want to replace a heuristic-based rule for lane changing with a learned model. How do you design the system, and how do you validate it is safer than the rule?"
• "Design a metric to evaluate 'passenger comfort' based on telemetry data (accelerometer, gyroscope)."
• "How would you architect a data mining pipeline to automatically flag 'near-miss' events from fleet logs?"

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How important is C++ for this role? For many Machine Learning Engineering roles at AURORA, particularly those in Behavior Planning or Onboard Systems, C++ is critical. While research and prototyping often happen in Python, production code that runs on the vehicle usually requires C++. If the job description mentions "C++," expect to be tested on it.

Q: What is the interview difficulty level? Candidates report the difficulty as Medium to High. The challenge often lies not in obscure algorithms, but in the application of concepts to the robotics domain. You will need to demonstrate deep understanding, not just surface-level familiarity with libraries.

Q: Can I work remotely? Yes, AURORA supports remote work for many positions, as indicated by our job postings. However, we also have major hubs in Pittsburgh and Mountain View. Specific requirements for onsite collaboration (e.g., for hardware-dependent roles) will be discussed during the recruiter screen.

Q: How long does the process take? The process typically takes 4–6 weeks from initial contact to offer. We aim to move quickly, but scheduling the full onsite loop (which involves multiple team members) can sometimes impact the timeline.

Other General Tips

Focus on Business Impact: One of the most common reasons for rejection is the inability to tie a technical answer to a business requirement. When answering a question, always explain why your solution matters for the product (e.g., "This approach reduces latency, which is critical for safety at highway speeds").

Brush up on Linear Algebra and Physics: Unlike web-based ML roles, our work involves physical objects moving in 3D space. Being comfortable with coordinate transformations, vectors, and basic kinematics will give you a significant edge in system design and coding rounds.

Understand the "Aurora Driver" Architecture: Familiarize yourself with the general pipeline of an autonomous vehicle: Perception (seeing the world) -> Prediction (guessing what others will do) -> Planning (deciding what we will do) -> Control (moving the car). Understanding where your role fits in this chain demonstrates high context awareness.

Be Honest About What You Don't Know: Safety is our core value. In an interview, it is better to admit you don't know something and explain how you would find out, rather than guessing. Guessing in a safety-critical environment is a red flag.

Summary & Next Steps

Becoming a Machine Learning Engineer at AURORA is an opportunity to do some of the most meaningful work of your career. You will be contributing to a technology that has the potential to save lives and transform logistics globally. The role demands excellence in both software engineering and machine learning, but it rewards you with the chance to solve novel problems that have never been solved before.

To succeed, focus your preparation on the intersection of ML theory and robotics implementation. Practice your coding in C++, review your linear algebra, and think deeply about how to validate models in a safety-critical environment. Approach your interviews with curiosity and a clear focus on how your skills can help build a safer driver.

The salary data above provides a baseline for the role. Compensation at AURORA is competitive and determined by your role, level, and location (e.g., remote vs. Bay Area). In addition to base salary, total compensation packages typically include equity and comprehensive benefits, reflecting the high value we place on top engineering talent.

Check Dataford for more specific interview questions and recent candidate experiences to refine your preparation further. We look forward to seeing what you can build with us.