Senior Staff Software Engineer, Zoox
Motion Planning
$221-319k
+RSUs. Compensation will vary based on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
Office located in Foster City, CA
Autonomous vehicle technology
Open for applications
Autonomous vehicle technology
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$221-319k
+RSUs. Compensation will vary based on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
Office located in Foster City, CA
1001+ employees
Company mission
To reimagine transportation from the ground up.
Role
Who you are
- Master's degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of experience
- Fluency in C++
- Understanding of configuration spaces and a variety of planning techniques (A*, RRTs, PRMs, etc.)
- Demonstrated ability to create real-time motion planning algorithms
Desirable
- Significant contributions to geometric- and/or sampling-based planning algorithms
- Experience with autonomous robots and machine learning or data-driven development processes
- Experience with ROS, pose estimation, SLAM, probabilistic filtering, 3D data, or CUDA
What the job involves
- On the Motion Planning team at Zoox, you’ll be dedicated to improving the driving behaviors of the robot on public roads
- The Planner's job is to figure out where the robot is going and how to get there safely in situations as complex as those found in Downtown San Francisco or on the Las Vegas Strip
- Safety is foundational at Zoox, so you will take a measured approach – develop a principled modification to the Planner, test in simulation and on closed courses, and team up with our safety drivers for on-road testing
- Create principled algorithmic improvements to specific areas of driving behavior and implement those changes in our code base
- Use our extensive backend tooling to test your changes across many different driving situations at the press of a button
- Lead on-vehicle drive reviews to generate actionable feedback on driving performance. Use this experience to help the team learn and make improvements
- Attend conferences and survey literature to stay informed on the most recent developments in the fields of Robotics and Motion Planning
- Write and file patents for novel technologies you develop
Our take
Zoox, a self-driving vehicle company, was founded to make personal transportation safer and more enjoyable for all. It has aimed to achieve this goal by creating a new mode of driverless transportation, thus eradicating the safety and logistical issues that come with human drivers.
It revealed its custom vehicle design in December 2020, showcasing something different from just a car without a driver. Uniquely, all four wheels are independent of one another, and the vehicles have no front or back, making them more agile than a standard car. Zoox claims that it is different from other industry players because it has created an entire driverless ecosystem, including the vehicle itself, allowing it to have more control.
The company is fast becoming a major player in an industry that is predicted to be worth $2 trillion by 2030. Electric motors are highly desirable, particularly in an urban environment, as governments look for ways to reduce emissions and improve air quality. Zoox is aiming to play a vital role in this evolution towards more sustainable urban mobility. Amazon acquired the company in 2020 and, despite a general downturn in the sector through 2022, is building a Zoox factory and budgeting $1 billion per year for future development and production.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Oct 2019
$200m
CONVERTIBLE
Jul 2018
$500m
SERIES B
Total funding: $1.2bn
Company benefits
- Paid parental leave
- Affinity groups and sports clubs
- Work from home opportunities
- Health insurance
- Our crew’s health and happiness is our first priority. We offer comprehensive health and mental health support, a wellbeing program, and unlimited and flexible paid time away
- We invest in our crew—and their families—for the long term. That includes generous family planning support, caregiver support, and strong cash compensation with great equity upside
- We look after our crew when they’re in the office too. Our famous food program is a great example, featuring a daily changing menu of local and sustainable dishes
- There’s a busy calendar of social events at Zoox, with more sports teams than you can count. And, of course, playing with robots is an important part of the job description
Company values
- WE'RE DOING ONE THING THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING: Safer, cleaner, more enjoyable mobility—for everyone. One product and one mission, bringing us together and driving us forward.
- IT’S BIGGER THAN ANY OF US: Collaboration isn’t just something we talk about. It’s the only way we get this done. It takes trust, humility, and openness. And it means we pull together like no other team
- ONE ZOOX, ONE CREW: Zoox is an inclusive, diverse, supportive community. One where we celebrate together, face challenges together, and grow stronger together. And where we work hard to ensure no one is left out and everyone is part of the story.
- EVERY DAY IS A MILESTONE: From each line of code to each mile on the road, everything we do is another step forward in our mission. We ask questions, tackle problems head-on, and celebrate the progress we’re making
Company HQ
Vintage Park, Foster City, CA
Articles
Leadership
Aicha Evans
(CEO, not founder)Having studied at the George Washington University, Aicha started her career with 2 years in Engineering at Skyworks before joining Intel, where she spent over 11 years. She left her role as Corporate Strategy Officer in February 2019 to join Zoox as CEO.
Jesse Levinson
(CTO)Prior to co-founding Zoox, completed a Computer Science PhD at Stanford University. Also created Pro HDR, a million+ selling mobile photography app.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 135 more jobs at Zoox