Senior/Staff Software Engineer (Behavior Capabilities)

• The Behavior Capabilities opportunity falls within the Fail Operational Planning team at Zoox
• This team works to ensure that the robot continues to operate effectively, even in the presence of minor compartmentalized failures or degraded capabilities
• The focus of the team includes developing behavioral and motion planning algorithms to improve trip progress, vehicle uptime metrics, and correspondingly a better customer experience
• This is a cutting-edge problem which requires teamwork and collaboration across a diverse group of experts including Planner, Perception, Prediction, Hardware, and more
• On this team, you will contribute to the next generation of algorithmic advancements to expand our robot’s ability to drive in some of the most complex scenarios
• We are looking for an engineer who is excited to understand the interdependencies within the driving stack and takes ownership of their projects and has a holistic product focused approach towards development
• Create principled algorithmic improvements to specific areas of driving behavior and implement those changes in our code base
• Collaborate cross-functionally to develop strategies and intelligent behaviors to mitigate the performance degradation under various failure modes of the system
• Architect and implement scalable solutions ensuring seamless integration with the rest of the driving stack
• Partner with validation teams to define and execute tests for developed algorithms

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

Preferred experience

• You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position. Here at Zoox, we know that diverse perspectives foster the innovation we need to be successful, and we are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills
• Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field and 9+ years of experience
• Understanding of vehicle kinematics
• Extensive experience with programming and algorithm design
• Fluency in C++
• PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field
• Experience shipping products to market (commercial robotics, drones, consumer devices etc.)
• Demonstrated ability to create real-time motion planning algorithms in a cross-functional team