Ben Pitzer
Trucking Software Lead, Senior Staff Software Engineer at Waymo
Palo Alto, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolBen Pitzer is a senior staff software engineer and Trucking Software Lead at Waymo with 15 years of experience building autonomous systems that bridge research and production. He holds a PhD in robotics (magna cum laude) from KIT and has led teams at Waymo, Google Search, and Bosch, delivering localization, perception, and QA toolchains for large-scale, safety-critical vehicles. Ben combines deep academic rigor with hands-on product execution—co-founding a DARPA Urban Challenge team and turning Bosch research into commercial robotic products. Based in Palo Alto, he excels at global software development, project leadership, and mentoring, and is driven by the long-term goal of founding a company that commercializes advanced autonomy.
15 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
Abitur, Mathematics, Physics, Abitur, Mathematics, Physics at Gymnasium Zitadelle JuelichDr.-Ing. (PhD), Robotics, magna cum laude, Dr.-Ing. (PhD), Robotics, magna cum laude at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)Dipl.-Ing (M.Sc.), Electrical Engineering, Dipl.-Ing (M.Sc.), Electrical Engineering at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
Github Skills (21)
ros8
driver8
dbus8
configurations7
backend7
ros-driver6
homebrew6
home-assistant6
ruby6
buildroot5
docker5
midi4
iot4
python4
operating-system4
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
pitzer/SiftGPU
Feb 2013 - Jul 2022
Contributions:10 commits, 1 PR, 1 push in 9 years 6 months
pitzer/funky_lights
Aug 2022 - Dec 2025
Contributions:1 release, 13 reviews, 85 PRs in 3 years 4 months
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