Staff / Senior Staff Software Engineer - Collision Avoidance System
Zoox is hiring a Staff / Senior Staff Software Engineer - Collision Avoidance System in Foster City, United States. It pays $291k-$409k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Zoox.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- The listed pay starts 74% above the typical software engineer posting on Level.
- Level classifies it as a lead role.
- Level lists 224 other open roles at Zoox.
- The role was posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
As a Staff or Senior Staff engineer, you will be the technical lead for CAS algorithms, with a focus on CAS perception. You will shape how CAS sees the world, combining interpretable geometric methods with machine learning, and you will own the architecture and roadmap that take these capabilities from idea to safe, real-time deployment on our fleet. Your work will directly affect the safety of every rider and road user around our vehicles.
In this role, you will:
- Serve as the technical lead and architect for CAS perception, defining how lidar, radar, and camera data become reliable obstacle detection, tracking, and collision-risk estimates under tight latency and compute budgets
- Design, implement, and ship both machine learning and classical perception algorithms (e.g., point-cloud geometry, ground estimation, clustering, state estimation and tracking, learned detection and segmentation, sensor fusion) in production-quality, safety-critical C++
- Own the end-to-end CAS algorithm architecture and multi-release technical roadmap, making clear trade-offs between safety, performance, latency, compute, and ML vs. non-ML approaches
- Partner across CAS perception, behavior and planning, and validation to define interfaces, requirements, metrics, and evaluation strategies that show the system is safe and ready to launch
- Work with sensor, system performance, safety strategy, and main autonomy teams to drive cross-team technical decisions, while mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across CAS
Qualifications
-
BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field, or equivalent experience
-
At least 10 years of experience developing perception or related algorithms for robotics, autonomous vehicles, or other real-time systems
-
Deep expertise in 3D perception from lidar, radar, and/or camera, with hands-on experience in both machine learning (detection, segmentation, fusion) and classical methods (geometry, state estimation, tracking)
-
Strong C++ skills and a track record of shipping efficient, reliable real-time software to production
-
Experience leading the architecture and technical roadmap of a complex production system across multiple teams
Bonus Qualifications
-
Conference or Journal publications in Machine Learning or Robotics-related venues
-
Experience with safety-critical systems or functional safety practices (e.g., ISO 26262, SOTIF), collision avoidance, emergency braking, prediction, or planning systems for autonomous vehicles
-
Experience optimizing and deploying models or algorithms on onboard compute (e.g., GPU / CUDA, TensorRT)
How we rate this
Staff / Senior Staff Software Engineer - Collision Avoidance System at Zoox rates 96 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Pay
- This job starts at
- $291k
- Typical software engineer job
- $168k
This posting starts 74% above the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs
Want an expert to read your CV for this job?
Free. Send your CV and the role you want next. You get your review by email within 24 hours.
Get new software engineer jobs (Builds AI ●●●●) by email
One email a week with the new software engineer jobs (Builds AI ●●●●), each rated for how much AI is in the work. No recruiter spam, unsubscribe in one click.
Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.
Similar roles
Software Engineering roles that build AI, at other companies.
What kind of AI work fits you?
Answer 12 practical questions in about three minutes. Get a simple profile, the work it points to, and live roles to explore next.
Find my next step