Rikki Valverde
Lead Autonomy Engineer at May Mobility
Portland, Oregon, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolRikki Valverde is a Lead Autonomy Engineer based in Portland with 12+ years of hands-on experience designing path planning and control systems for self-driving vehicles, articulated trucks, and human-robot interaction. She has progressed from research roles to technical leadership at companies like Torc Robotics and Daimler Trucks, where she architected safety-critical behavior and motion planning, redesigned longitudinal planning and ACC algorithms, and led lateral control for an L4 tractor-trailer. Known for reducing component coupling to accelerate iteration, she blends systems-level thinking with embedded control expertise and a track record of shipping production-ready autonomy features. Rikki’s background in robotics research and a Robotics M.S. from Northwestern informs her practical approach to trajectory optimization and drive-by-wire integrations. She combines strategic technical leadership with deep implementation skills across the full software lifecycle, and has repeatedly acted as the SME guiding cross-functional teams on planning requirements and performance.
10 years of coding experience
12 years of employment as a software developer
Self-Driving Car Nanodegree, Self-Driving Car Nanodegree at UdacityMaster of Science (M.S.), Robotics, Master of Science (M.S.), Robotics at Northwestern UniversityBSE, Mechanical Engineering, Cognitive Science, BSE, Mechanical Engineering, Cognitive Science at University of Pennsylvania
Github Skills (1)
code-analysis1
Github contributions (5)
rikkimelissa/baxter_throw
Jan 2016 - Apr 2016
Contributions:94 commits, 22 pushes, 1 branch in 3 months
rikkimelissa/baxter_pick_and_place
Nov 2015 - Dec 2015
Contributions:41 commits, 21 pushes, 2 branches in 16 days
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