Inside TIER IV｜Careers

Yoshihito Takashima

Yoshihito Takashima holds degrees in computer science and mathematics, bringing extensive experience in large-scale 0-to-1 production environments from his tenures at Microsoft and Amazon/AWS headquarters. As CTO at TIER IV, he oversees the entire R&D unit, spearheading both business and technical innovations to meet the demands of a rapidly scaling autonomous vehicle ecosystem.

COMMENT

Autonomous driving has the potential to be the next life-changing innovation of our time. I am excited to lead a paradigm shift that will transform how society addresses transportation needs during this pivotal moment.

Simon Thompson

Simon Thompson, with a background in computing technology, specializes in robot autonomy. As part of TIER IV since 2019, he leads internal research, global initiatives, and partnerships. He graduated from the Australian National University and worked at AIST, Japan.

COMMENT

Autonomous driving blends theory and engineering. TIER IV excels in real-world deployment and supports fundamental research, making us ideal to explore this field.

Akihito Ohsato

Akihito Ohsato, previously at Sony, led multiple autonomous vehicle projects and contributed to Autoware at TIER IV. Currently an architect, he leads technology design for object recognition, system design for Pilot.Auto, and operational design for Web.Auto. He also oversees collaborative research projects.

COMMENT

I'm committed to achieving "The Art of Open Source" by fostering a collaborative environment for developing autonomous driving software and expanding our work to enhance hardware and operations.

Yukihiro Saito

Yukihiro Saito, involved in early Autoware development, led software development for recognition, localization, and path planning. Currently an architect, he leads architecture design and algorithms around Autoware, and develops the technology roadmap at TIER IV.

COMMENT

Seeing our technology shared globally as Autoware is inspiring. With expertise in autonomous mobile robot systems, I'm dedicated to creating a powerful and scalable autonomous driving system.

Eiji Sekiya

Eiji Sekiya, with experience at DeNA, launched Web.Auto at TIER IV, providing operational management systems and CI/CD pipelines. As an architect, he manages the design and development of cloud systems for related services.

COMMENT

Creating services to support the social implementation of new technologies is both challenging and fun! I will work hard to expand TIER IV’s cloud services to spread Autoware throughout the world!

Kenji Funaoka

Kenji Funaoka, at TIER IV since 2018, established Pilot.Auto's development organization with a focus on power-saving designs. He leads the Microautonomy project, ensuring real-time guarantee of component-based software. With a background in parallelization development and NVMe Host Memory Buffers, he brings valuable expertise.

COMMENT

“Make It Possible With Partners, Make It Feasible For Partners.” Collaborating with global talents and co-creating new value is stimulating and rewarding in both learning and innovation.

Ryohsuke Mitsudome

Ryohsuke Mitsudome, who joined TIER IV in 2018, contributed to Autoware's library development and overseas projects. Currently a software architect, he also chairs the Technical Steering Committee for the Autoware Foundation, collaborating with member companies for open-source software development.

COMMENT

It is exciting to be able to develop together with people from all over the world through Autoware.

Takamasa Horibe

Takamasa Horibe, formerly at Sony, developed motion planning and control systems for autonomous driving at TIER IV. He contributed to precise control, trajectory planning algorithms, and the Autonomous Valet Parking Project. As team leader, he develops autonomous planning/control modules.

COMMENT

I enjoy working in an environment where I can take on world-class challenges with excellent team members.

Maxime Clement

Maxime Clement, PhD, worked at a Tokyo autonomous driving startup before joining TIER IV in 2021. He is enhancing Autoware's planning capabilities and collaborates with the Autoware Foundation to solve new challenges and implement solutions.

COMMENT

I am very happy to be part of such an ambitious open-source project.

Naoyori Tanzawa

Naoyori Tanzawa, an experienced software engineer, previously worked at DENSO. Since joining TIER IV he focuses on the Autoware ecosystem, internal development streamlining, and collaboration with the Autoware foundation. He is also a doctoral candidate at University of Tokyo researching the OSS ecosystem.

COMMENT

With industry experience in the US and Japan, I’m contributing to the development of global autonomous driving through open source, aiming for market launch and impact.

Kunihito Kuwabara

Kunihito Kuwabara, an experienced lead engineer, previously developed a next-gen mobility service and verified autonomous driving with motor vehicle manufacturers. Since joining TIER IV in 2019 he leads the team for fleet management, remote monitoring, and map control systems.

COMMENT

I will continue to make efforts to expand and lead the development of cloud services for autonomous driving with a focus on Autoware, from Japan to the world.

Noriko Shimomura

Noriko Shimomura joined TIER IV in 2020 and now works as an Engineering Project Manager in the CTO office. Previously she focused on road environment recognition, and led AD/ADAS research and MaaS concept verification experiments for autonomous driving applications at Nissan.

COMMENT

I enjoy my work while imagining what kind of society it would be where people say things like "old cars were actually driven by people!"