Typical software engineer pay at startups: $221K median, middle half $188K–$256K (2,406 posted ranges).
Typical engineering pay at Applied Intuition: $147K–$222K — median of 175 listed ranges.
Across all startups we track: $170K–$242K for engineering roles (8,046 listed ranges).
Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co.
We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions
As a senior software engineer on the Simulation Orchestration team, you will own the compute platform that Applied Intuition's autonomy products run on. Our customers, and our own internal self-driving programs, run millions of simulations to validate every change to their self-driving stack — throughput is directly how fast they ship. From that foundation, the team is expanding to own on-demand compute scheduling and capacity management across Applied: one platform, any workload, any environment.
Develop a multi-environment compute platform for workload scheduling, resource allocation, and node lifecycle.
Collaborate with customers and internal teams to translate compute needs into platform features.
Solve distributed systems challenges including GPU scheduling, autoscaling, and resource efficiency.
Ensure high reliability and scalability for production simulation systems.
Drive architecture decisions to expand simulation orchestration into a company-wide compute platform.
A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent
5+ years of backend engineering experience, with a track record of owning production distributed systems
4+ years of coding in Golang, Python, Java, or C++
4+ years building complex backend systems on major cloud providers
Deep Kubernetes expertise, including pod scheduling, node lifecycle, and autoscaling under load
Experience building or operating workload scheduling systems (e.g., dispatch, bin-packing, quota enforcement)
Self-starter with experience driving production system development from 0 to 1
Experience scheduling GPU workloads or managing GPU capacity at scale.
Multi-cloud (AWS, OCI, GCP, Azure) or on-prem Kubernetes deployments.
Experience managing multi-cluster environments using Infrastructure as Code .
Experience building custom Kubernetes controllers or operators.
Experience with cloud cost optimization strategies for high-scale compute workloads.
Compensation at Applied Intuition for eligible roles includes base salary, equity, and benefits. Base salary is a single component of the total compensation package, which may also include equity in the form of options and/or restricted stock units, comprehensive health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance coverage, 401k retirement benefits with employer match, learning and wellness stipends, and paid time off. Note that benefits are subject to change and may vary based on jurisdiction of employment.
Applied Intuition pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum intended target base salary for new hire salaries for the position. The actual base salary offered to a successful candidate will additionally be influenced by a variety of factors including experience, credentials & certifications, educational attainment, skill level requirements, interview performance, and the level and scope of the position.
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471, Appendix A to Subpart A), relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.
FOR US-BASED ROLES: Applied Intuition is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive application and interview experience to applicants who are disabled veterans and other applicants with disabilities or medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations are available, requesting an accommodation will not affect your candidacy in any way, and you are not required to disclose the nature of your disability or medical condition in order to make a request. If you require an accommodation please contact careers@applied.co. We will work with you!
From Applied Intuition's careers page. First seen Jul 15, 2026, last verified Oct 26, 2026.
Open roles: 327, up 19 (+6%) over the last 30 days.