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Aurora Innovation

About Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation builds autonomous trucking. It hires Truck Operations Specialists and Vehicle Operations Specialists, CDL worker roles that operate autonomous Class-8 trucks to test and collect the driving data the Aurora Driver trains on.

$30–$38/hr

Typical pay, live

, RobotTraining.jobs shows 9 Aurora Innovation jobs open, typically paying $30 to $38 an hour (median $30).

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Live Aurora Innovation roles

Updated 1 Nov 2026, 06:01 UTC

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All 3 Aurora Innovation job postings, in full

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Aurora Innovation jobs by country

Its open roles that accept applicants in each country.

USA · 9

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Is Aurora Innovation a good place to work?

Researched October 2026 · 24 sources

Mostly. Aurora is a public, well-funded self-driving truck company that posts its CDL operator jobs itself with hourly pay and benefits, but the jobs are now fixed-term assignments and its trucks are fast going driverless. The in-cab job is shrinking by design: since July 2026 Aurora's new trucks run with the driver's seat empty, it aims for 200 driverless trucks by the end of 2026, and operator jobs are posted as 6- or 12-month assignments. It pays $30–$38/hr in most of its live listings (median $30/hr).

Actively hiring, pay independently measured from its live feed
Who is behind it

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (Nasdaq: AUR) hires through Aurora Operations, Inc. and is based in Pittsburgh. CEO Chris Urmson founded it in 2017 with Sterling Anderson (who left for GM in 2025) and Drew Bagnell. It had about 1,900 staff at the end of 2025, after a 3% cut in 2024. It lost $270 million in Q2 2026 and held about $1.2 billion on June 30, 2026, after selling $236 million of new shares in 2026. Operators test and monitor its self-driving trucks.

Getting paid

Aurora posts these jobs itself (no agency named) as full-time hourly roles on 6- or 12-month assignments that may be extended; most Texas and Phoenix posts guarantee 40 hours a week. Each posting states its hourly rate and benefits eligibility. Shifts rotate through nights and weekends, with overtime and travel. Pay frequency: not stated.

Worker ratings

Glassdoor 3.6/5 (272 reviews) · Blind 4.0/5 (303 reviews). Read October 2026.

Verified active

9 open roles on Aurora Innovation, independently checked 1 Nov 2026.

Who can join

On-site in Texas (the Dallas area, El Paso, Laredo and Midland among them), Phoenix, Arizona and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

What people praise

  • Texas drivers on Glassdoor like the pay: a former autonomous tractor operator in Aledo said pay, benefits and home time beat anything else in trucking, and a Class A driver in Palmer said the pay is good from day one.
  • All 4 reviewers on Glassdoor's Autonomous Vehicle Operations Specialist page would recommend Aurora: an El Paso operator (2023) called it a great place to work; a Houston one (2024) said the work can get monotonous.
  • Aurora's careers page lists, for hourly staff, 20 vacation days a year, 12 paid holidays, 18 weeks of paid parental leave, up to 4 weeks of paid medical leave and a 401(k) plan.

What people complain about

  • An Operations Specialist on Blind (October 24, 2026) liked the pay and benefits but called the culture terrible, with many inexperienced directors; an operations manager (October 21, 2026) cited zero work-life balance.
  • Texas drivers fault management on Glassdoor: the Aledo operator said managers will not listen and Aurora hires from outside, so promotion from within is rare; the Palmer driver said leadership needs replacing.
  • Glassdoor reviewers rate career opportunities 3.1/5 and culture 3.3/5, and fewer than 6 in 10 would recommend Aurora to a friend. Most of its reviews come from engineers and office staff, not drivers.
  • Staff on Blind in 2026 describe tight money: an IT analyst (April) said people overwork until they burn out, a hardware engineer (February) cited runway worries, and an engineer (August) noted no 401(k) match.

What has gone wrong

  • May 2025. Aurora began driverless runs between Dallas and Houston on May 1, 2025, with an observer in the back seat. Less than three weeks later truck maker PACCAR, citing prototype parts, asked for a person in the driver's seat, and Aurora agreed; that person does not drive. Driverless night runs followed in 2025, then Fort Worth to El Paso (October 2025) and on to Phoenix (2026).
  • July 2026. On July 22, 2026 Aurora put its second-generation International LT trucks on the road with the driver's seat empty; a roadside assistance worker may ride in the back on some trips. It aims for 200 driverless trucks by the end of 2026 and 30,000 by 2030, and carriers Hirschbach and Charger Logistics plan to own hundreds of driverless trucks from 2027.
  • August 2026. Aurora filed 25 crash reports with NHTSA from October 2022 to August 2026, all in Texas and New Mexico with staff aboard; most involve road debris or other vehicles hitting its trucks. The only injuries, reported as minor, came in August 2026 near Las Cruces, NM, when a tractor-trailer rear-ended an Aurora truck braking for a checkpoint, 2 seconds after the operator took over.
  • June 2025. An Americans with Disabilities Act employment suit, Aina v. Aurora Operations, Inc. (W.D. Pa. 2:25-cv-00911), was filed in Pittsburgh federal court on June 30, 2025. The docket summary we could read does not say what job the plaintiff held or what is claimed, and we found no ruling or settlement.
Who it suits

Best for: Class A CDL drivers with 3+ years of commercial driving and a clean MVR near Dallas-Fort Worth, El Paso, Laredo, Midland or Phoenix who want hourly work and can rotate between day and night shifts, weekends and travel. Not for: Anyone who needs a job that lasts (Aurora is taking people out of its trucks and hires operators for 6 or 12 months at a time), wants fixed daytime hours, or cannot pass a DOT physical and random drug tests.

Sources for this review

What Aurora Innovation pays

Measured live on its open roles · updated 1 Nov 2026
$30–$38/hrusual band, measured live

Today's median on Aurora Innovation: $30/hr, taken from the 9 open roles that list a rate. Posted rates go from $27.50/hr to $38.50/hr.

Based on 3 different posted rates, at this employer. Advertised USD hourly sample only, not a representative wage survey. Missing rates may bias the result in either direction.

Kind of workOpen rolesTypical pay
AV & Drone9$30–$40/hr

Aurora Innovation's best-paid openings right now

All 9, highest pay first

Typical pay here means the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each advertised range) to the 90th-percentile advertised ceiling, measured the same way as every list on the job board. Wondering where a number comes from? Read how each pay figure is sourced and graded.

Kinds of work at Aurora Innovation

Open any of them for the day-to-day tasks, every employer hiring for it and market-wide pay.

AV & Drone Operators9 open here

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What our research records about Aurora Innovation

48 dated facts from public sources (the company itself, filings, regulators, courts and the press), each kept with the publication it comes from in one of our research reports. Newest first; the newest is from 26 Oct 2026. Its own hiring, counted every day from its job board, is in Aurora Innovation hiring data.

All 48 facts about Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation (Nasdaq: AUR) is a listed company. Every robot-training role it posts, with its pay, place and the days it went up and came down, is kept role by role in the Robot hiring radar, for investors and strategy teams.

From the forum

Ask the people doing Aurora Innovation work what only they can tell you.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Aurora Innovation a good place to work?

Mostly. Aurora is a public, well-funded self-driving truck company that posts its CDL operator jobs itself with hourly pay and benefits, but the jobs are now fixed-term assignments and its trucks are fast going driverless. The in-cab job is shrinking by design: since July 2026 Aurora's new trucks run with the driver's seat empty, it aims for 200 driverless trucks by the end of 2026, and operator jobs are posted as 6- or 12-month assignments.

Is Aurora Innovation legit?

Yes. Aurora Innovation, Inc. (Nasdaq: AUR) hires through Aurora Operations, Inc. and is based in Pittsburgh. CEO Chris Urmson founded it in 2017 with Sterling Anderson (who left for GM in 2025) and Drew Bagnell. It had about 1,900 staff at the end of 2025, after a 3% cut in 2024. It lost $270 million in Q2 2026 and held about $1.2 billion on June 30, 2026, after selling $236 million of new shares in 2026. Operators test and monitor its self-driving trucks.

Does Aurora Innovation pay?

Yes. Public autonomous-trucking company running commercial driverless lanes. Payouts: Hourly / salaried, regular payroll.

How much does Aurora Innovation pay?

Today most of Aurora Innovation's listings pay $30–$38/hr, and the median sits at $30/hr, measured on the 9 open roles that list a rate. Posted rates go from $27.50/hr to $38.50/hr.

Is Aurora Innovation worth it?

Aurora Innovation pays $30–$38/hr in most of its live listings (median $30/hr). It suits people in its operating cities who can work scheduled shifts and hold any license or certificate the role asks for. Worth knowing: Glassdoor 3.6/5 (272 reviews) · Blind 4.0/5 (303 reviews).

How does Aurora Innovation pay out?

Hourly / salaried, regular payroll.

Where is Aurora Innovation open to workers?

On-site in Texas (the Dallas area, El Paso, Laredo and Midland among them), Phoenix, Arizona and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Aurora Innovation salaries by job title

Aurora Innovation versus other employers

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Sorted by what an application there is likely worth to you, with a referral lift for employers that pay us a referral fee; your pay is never affected.

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