Lead AI Engineer

Who you are

• 10+ years in Data/Software Engineering, with 2+ years deploying GenAI/LLMs in production
• Deep Python proficiency; experience with LangChain, LlamaIndex or provider-native orchestration (e.g., Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Assistants/Agents SDK or hand-rolled)
• Hands-on experience building/integrating MCP servers or comparable connector frameworks
• Experienced in AI gateway solutions (e.g. Cloudflare AI Gateway) for governing agent traffic
• Working knowledge of SSO/identity federation (SAML, OIDC, OAuth 2.0) and propagating identity through agentic tool calls
• Experience with cloud AI services (AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI) and vector databases (MongoDB, Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus, OpenSearch)
• Experience building AI solutions for corporate functions like Finance, Legal (e.g. contract analysis), HR (e.g. policy retrieval), Supply Chain (e.g. forecasting efficiency) or Manufacturing (e.g., MES data integration, production/quality analytics)
• Familiarity with AI platform vendor evaluations (Bedrock, Vertex, Cortex, etc.)
• Experience defining enterprise IAM integration patterns (Okta, Entra ID, Ping) for AI systems and establishing AI governance frameworks or centers of excellence
• Previous experience in the autonomous vehicle, robotics or high-tech manufacturing sectors
• You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position

What the job involves

• Zoox is seeking a highly motivated, hands-on Lead AI Engineer to spearhead the end-to-end development and deployment of our Enterprise Gen AI and LLM initiatives, building agentic workflows, integrating enterprise data sources, and enforcing identity-aware security, that transform operations across Procurement, Supply Chain, Legal, Finance, HR and Manufacturing (MES)
• Design and deploy production-grade LLM applications and intelligent agents capable of complex reasoning, secure tool usage and autonomous multi-step workflows
• Architect enterprise data/tool integrations using MCP servers, establishing standardized, reusable connectors across Procurement, Supply Chain, Legal, Finance, HR and Manufacturing (MES)
• Enforce security guardrails via AI gateways - authentication, rate-limiting, logging and policy compliance for all model/agent traffic
• Implement identity inheritance via SSO, ensuring agents act strictly within the requesting user's permissions & privileges (no privilege escalation, no standing overreach)
• Work with the Information Security team on access control (RBAC/ABAC) for agentic systems and establish observability standards for agent behavior and data access
• Partner with cross-functional teams to build secure, code-driven AI automation

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