Mapping Operations Lead

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

About the role

Applied Intuition is seeking a technical lead to drive the day-to-day operations of our mapping team. Maps serve as a foundational interface with autonomous vehicle perception, planning, and localization systems.

This is a hands-on leadership role at the intersection of data collection, map production, validation, simulation, and field operations. You'll own the production schedule, lead first-line triage of map and data issues, and serve as the connective tissue between mapping specialists, software engineering, and field operations teams. The right person thrives in a high-throughput environment, brings deep technical judgment, and knows how to keep a team organized and unblocked. You will directly impact AV stack performance.

This is an excellent opportunity for professionals with a background in high definition (HD) map creation who are comfortable with technical workflows, iterative feedback cycles, and real-time prioritization in a startup environment.

At Applied Intuition, you will:

• Lead a team of mapping specialists, setting priorities, managing workloads, and maintaining a clear production schedule across concurrent map build and update cycles

• Own the weekly and sprint-level production calendar — balancing incoming requests for mapping new areas, improving map quality, and supporting field tests

• Run daily standups and triage sessions; escalate blockers quickly and make real-time prioritization decisions based on operational impact to keep the pipeline moving

• Mentor specialists, conduct technical reviews of their work, and establish standards for map labeling, QC, acceptance criteria, and documentation

• Serve as the primary escalation point for map data issues flagged during map production, validation, or by downstream consumers, including initial triage, creating actionable followup tasks, and routing to maps and engineering teams for resolution

• Build and maintain a triage playbook so the team can classify and resolve common issues consistently and quickly

• Coordinate with engineers to validate HD map accuracy in simulation environments and close gaps before map releases

• Close the loop with operations and safety teams so field feedback quickly improves map coverage and quality

We're looking for someone who has:

• Bachelor's Degree or higher in a relevant field

• 3+ years of experience in HD map production, geospatial data operations, or a closely related field in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or mobility

• Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating a team of technical contributors — you don't need a formal management title, but you know how to organize people around a shared workflow

• Strong understanding of HD map data formats (e.g., OpenDRIVE, NDS, or proprietary lane-level map schemas) and annotation pipelines to label map elements

• Experience working with point cloud data, 3D visualization environments, or lidar-based annotation tools

• Familiarity with simulation environments (e.g., CARLA, LGSVL, or internal sim stacks) and how map data feeds into sim validation

• Experience analyzing field reports or sensor data to identify map quality issues

• Comfort with data tooling — SQL, C++, Python, QGIS, or similar — for pulling reports, querying map data, and building dashboards. AI skills a strong plus.

• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate technical issues clearly for both specialists and cross-functional partners

• Organized, calm under pressure, and energized by the pace of production operations.

Nice to have:

• Experience with LiDAR point clouds and camera-based feature extraction

• Experience with standard definition (SD) street network data

• Background in AV safety operations or working alongside safety drivers

• Familiarity with JIRA or similar tools for tracking production backlogs and Slack for real time communication

• Prior experience defining or improving QA/QC standards in a mapping team

• Confident working across time zones

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.