Principal Software Engineer (Perception Architect)

• Be the visionary Perception Architect designing the sensory “nervous system” for our next generation of autonomous products. Evolve our end-to-end perception architecture, serving as the essential liaison between Sensing teams and the core ML system
• Drive architectural evolution toward next-generation sensing and compute platforms by influencing Hardware-Software Co-Design
• System Synthesis: Define the end-to-end perception architecture—assess new sensing (LiDAR, Radar, Camera) to the final fused world model
• Hardware-Software Co-Design: Partner with Compute and Sensing teams to influence the design, ensuring our algorithms have the “computational oxygen” they need
• Algorithmic Strategy: Lead the transition from current pipelines to AI innovation pipelines, while maintaining the safety and interpretability required for edge deployment
• Future-Proofing: Evaluate emerging technologies and determine their viability for the 3-5 year roadmap
• Performance Budgeting: Collaborate on rigorous metrics for latency and accuracy across diverse edge-computing environments
• Lead cross functional teams: to create a viable plan to move to new platforms and unlock further technical capabilities for Perception systems. Coordinate projects across partner teams to make sure work is aligned with the overall org direction

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- Experience: 8+ years in autonomous systems with at least 2 years in an architectural role, shipping and evolving perception systems
• Hands on Skills: Proficiency in C++ (production-grade) and Python (rapid prototyping). Ability to run experiments across system components and run metrics platforms
• Education: Ph.D. or MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field with a focus on Computer Vision
• Platform Proficiency: Deep understanding of hardware acceleration, component budgeting and transition to new platforms
• Deep Domain Expertise: Mastery of systems focused on Computer Vision, Deep learning, Foundational models, Sensor Fusion, and State Estimation (SLAM, EKF/UKF). Deep understanding of sensor modalities and their impact to perception/autonomy systems, including: Camera, lidar, radar
• Mathematical Rigor: Strong foundation in 3D geometry, linear algebra, and probabilistic robotics
• Soft Skills: Curious, Data driven, with ability to translate complex technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership