Principal Software Engineer, Autonomy Evaluation

zoox

10+ Years | Foster City, California, United States of America (Hybrid) | Full Time | 6 months ago

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Job Summary

Zoox is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead AI evaluation for autonomous driving. The role involves defining and planning advanced AI evaluation beyond safety, progress, and comfort. Responsibilities include prototyping concepts with autonomy leaders, improving data curation and metrics development, and collaborating with foundation model teams to leverage models for offline validation. The engineer will also work with infrastructure and simulation teams to build new AI evaluation capabilities and provide technical mentorship. This position requires a strong understanding of machine learning evaluation in autonomous driving, GenAI, or robotics, with a proven track record of technical leadership in large-scale AI organizations. Experience with production machine learning pipelines, C++ or Python, and strong mathematics skills are essential.

Must Have

Lead AI evaluation beyond safety, progress, comfort
Prototype and evaluate concepts
Drive process improvements
Collaborate with foundation model teams
Develop models to improve validation speed and quality
Build new AI evaluation capabilities
Provide technical mentorship
BS, MS, or PhD in computer science or related field
Experience with ML evaluation in Autonomous Driving, GenAI, or Robotics
Technical leadership in large-scale AI organizations
Experience with production ML pipelines
Fluency in C++ or Python
Strong mathematics skills
10+ years of experience

Good to Have

Experience using foundation models for ML evaluations
Experience training and deploying Deep Learning models
Direct experience in Autonomous Driving

Perks & Benefits

Paid time off (sick leave, vacation, bereavement)
Unpaid time off
Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights
Amazon RSUs
Health insurance
Long-term care insurance
Long-term and short-term disability insurance
Life insurance

Job Description

The Autonomy Software Metrics team at Zoox is responsible for building metrics and machinery for Autonomy/AI Software evaluation. We work closely with Autonomy Software development teams (Product management, Perception, Prediction, Planner and Collision Avoidance) to provide metrics evaluation on safety, progress and comfort at both the component and integration level. We also work closely with Simulation, Infrastructure, Software Core and SWQA teams to build metrics platforms to accelerate the AI software development lifecycle. The team currently consists of data scientists, data engineers, software engineers, and system engineers.

As Zoox advances into the future of autonomous driving and expands rapidly on our operating geofences and operational design domains, we are also evolving our AI Metrics and Evaluation approach. In this role as Principal Software Engineer, you will lead and spearhead the concept of “validation for good driving”. Your role will look at problems in a way that crosses team boundaries to prototype new approaches that influence the long term technical direction of multiple organizations within the company. This role will strongly impact both immediate company milestones and forward looking exploratory projects.

In this role, you will

Technically lead the definition and work planning in advancing AI evaluation beyond safety, progress and comfort.
Collaborate with autonomy software leaders, data scientists and engineers to prototype and evaluate the concepts.
Drive process improvements on data curation, metrics development and metrics quality.
Collaborate with Zoox Foundation Model team to leverage the foundation models used for offline validation and/or triage.
Use multi-modal data from across the company to develop models and strategies that improve the speed and quality of our validation process.
Work with Infrastructure and Simulation teams to build new capabilities in AI evaluation that are not currently available.
Provide technical mentorship to the broader groups at Zoox.

Qualifications

BS, MS, or PhD degree in computer science or related field
Experience with ML evaluation in Autonomous Driving, GenAI, or Physical AI, Robotics etc.
Proven track record of technical leadership in large-scale AI organizations
Experience with production Machine Learning pipelines: dataset creation, training frameworks, metrics pipelines
Fluency in C++ or Python
Strong mathematics skills
10+ years of experience

Bonus Qualifications

Prior experience with using foundation models to advance ML evaluations
Experience with training and deploying Deep Learning models
Direct working experience in Autonomous Driving

Compensation

There are three major components to compensation for this position: salary, Amazon Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), and Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights. The salary will range from $373,000-$469,000. A sign-on bonus may be part of a compensation package. Compensation will vary based on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Zoox also offers a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (e.g. sick leave, vacation, bereavement), unpaid time off, Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights, Amazon RSUs, health insurance, long-term care insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, and life insurance.