Senior/Staff Motion Planning Engineer, Zoox

Teleguidance

$221-319k

TypeScript
C++
CUDA
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Foster City, CA

Zoox

Autonomous vehicle technology

Open for applications

Zoox

Autonomous vehicle technology

1001+ employees

B2CArtificial IntelligenceCarsTransportElectric VehiclesAutomation

Open for applications

$221-319k

TypeScript
C++
CUDA
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Foster City, CA

1001+ employees

B2CArtificial IntelligenceCarsTransportElectric VehiclesAutomation

Company mission

To reimagine transportation from the ground up.

Role

Who you are

  • Master's degree in Computer Science or related field
  • Experience writing performance-critical production code in C++
  • Demonstrated ability to create real-time motion planning algorithms
  • Understanding of configuration spaces and a variety of planning techniques (A*, D*, RRTs, etc.)
  • Extensive experience with programming and algorithm design
  • Strong mathematical and geometrical skills
  • Experience leading small projects or teams

Desirable

  • PhD in Computer Science or related field
  • Experience with autonomous robots, Telerobotics
  • Experience with CUDA, Protobuf, or TypeScript

What the job involves

  • Zoox is looking for a motion planning software engineer to join our Planning and Control team
  • In this role, you will help us develop planner behavior and trajectories in collaboration with remote guidance and write on-vehicle C++ components that integrate human guidance into the execution of our robot
  • You’ll solve the most complex and challenging edge cases for autonomous systems that are absolutely crucial to enabling Zoox’s mission
  • You will write on-vehicle C++ code that seamlessly integrates guidance provided by remote operators into the autonomous planner stack
  • Within the Planner organization, you will work with fellow engineers from vertical teams (agent handling, junctions, etc.), and you will represent TeleGuidance as a member on horizontal teams (construction zones, emergency vehicles, etc.)
  • You will design and implement new tools and features that remote operators will use to help our fleet of vehicles to navigate complex dense urban driving environments. You will work with QA to develop a test plan for your new features
  • You will have the opportunity to contribute to a broad portion of the code base, as dictated by your skills and interests. Members of our team have contributed to motion planning, trajectory optimization, GPU code, offline tooling/simulation, cost tuning, and more
  • You will collaborate with developers across the AI software organization as a whole: Prediction, Perception, Core/Infra, and more

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 headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Led by a woman
Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

24% employee growth in 12 months

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

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 127 more jobs at Zoox