---
title: 'Senior/Staff Software Engineer - Planner Frameworks Pipeline at Zoox'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-planner-frameworks-pipeline-zoox-foster-city-h9m3gj4qp6kj'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-03'
---

# Senior/Staff Software Engineer - Planner Frameworks Pipeline at Zoox

- **Company:** Zoox
- **Location:** Foster City, CA
- **Compensation:** $254k–$350k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-06-16
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-03
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/zoox/4cf378f6-fab9-4bdb-a349-4ae70c099b8e

## Job description

Zoox is looking for an experienced software engineer to work on large-scale simulation pipelines used to validate the behavior of the Zoox self-driving vehicle. These are data and GPU intensive workloads built on Ray.io and Kubernetes. Given the massive scale and criticality of these pipelines, ensuring their reliability and efficiency has a significant impact on the company's ability to safely and quickly iterate on autonomy development. We are a small, scrappy team within the larger Autonomy organization. Although this role primarily involves off-vehicle pipelines, you will work closely with engineers developing the on-vehicle algorithms and models in our autonomy stack. We stay close to the end users - autonomy engineers - and think about the end to end use case for these validation pipelines. This is a hands-on role with a high degree of independence and ownership. You will be expected to contribute towards the framework’s architecture, reliability, efficiency, and grow its capabilities to support new use cases. You should have a track record of keeping production systems running with high availability. Experience with robotics or autonomous systems is not required but an understanding of the robotic data lifecycle is preferred.

In this role, you will:

- Improve the cost efficiency, reliability, and performance of our validation and simulation pipelines

- Create production-grade APIs, SDKs, and tools to enable a varied set of validations of autonomous behaviors

- Improve the ML training pipelines supporting the autonomous behavior org

## Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field and 8+ years of industry experience

- Experience optimizing large-scale distributed systems for cost and efficiency

-

## Experience with AWS or similar providers

- Proficiency with Python and familiarity with C++

Bonus Qualifications

- Exposure to machine learning workloads (training, inference, data generation) from a cost optimization perspective

- Background in algorithmic optimization or performance investigation

- Experience with Ray.io, particularly Ray Core and Ray Data

## About Zoox

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Zoox is building a fully autonomous, all-electric, purpose-built robotaxi service to give the world a better way to ride.
- **Entity Type**: Private (independent subsidiary of Amazon, acquired in 2020)
- **Headquarters**: Foster City, California, USA (with offices in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles)
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Not specified in provided sources

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Autonomous ride‑hailing / Self‑driving electric vehicles
- **Target customers**: B2C – individual riders seeking safe, convenient, and sustainable urban transportation
- **Mission**: “Give the world a better way to ride” – providing safer, cleaner, autonomous ride‑hailing for everyone [zoox.com](https://zoox.com/about)

## Products & Services
- **Zoox Robotaxi**: A purpose‑built, fully autonomous electric vehicle designed from the ground up for ride‑hailing. Features bidirectional driving, four‑wheel steering, and no steering wheel or pedals. The service handles all charging, maintenance, and fleet management – riders simply get in and enjoy the ride [zoox.com](https://zoox.com).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not disclosed (Zoox is a private subsidiary of Amazon)
- **Key Metric**: Not publicly available (revenue and funding details are not reported as a stand‑alone entity)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Amazon (parent company)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Received authorization from the Nevada DMV to operate robotaxis on public roads [zoox.com/about](https://zoox.com/about)
  - Expanded testing and operations to Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, and other cities
  - Continues to scale its engineering and operations teams (multiple open roles on the careers page as of 2026)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose‑built design**: Unlike retrofitted vehicles, Zoox’s robotaxi is designed from scratch for autonomous ride‑hailing (symmetrical, bidirectional, four‑wheel steering, no driver controls)
- **Amazon backing**: Deep financial resources, supply chain expertise, and cloud infrastructure (AWS) support rapid development and scaling
- **Full‑stack autonomy**: In‑house AI, computer vision, and sensing stack integrated directly into the vehicle design
- **Safety‑first approach**: Comprehensive testing, safety‑critical system design, and focus on public road validation

## Strategic Focus
- Achieving commercial launch of the Zoox ride‑hailing service in select U.S. cities
- Continuing to mature the autonomous driving system through real‑world testing and simulation
- Expanding the “Go‑to‑Market” strategy and building out operations teams (see CRM Lead, Go‑to‑Market Manager roles) [jobs.lever.co/zoox](https://jobs.lever.co/zoox)
- Scaling manufacturing and prototyping to prepare for fleet deployment

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Diverse, supportive community with inclusion‑focused strategy. Crew‑led groups for personal and professional development. Emphasis on trust, humility, and openness [zoox.com/careers](https://zoox.com/careers)
- **Work environment**: Hybrid? The careers page lists many roles as “On‑site” in Foster City, CA, with other office locations available. In‑office perks include a famous food program with daily changing local and sustainable dishes, plus a busy calendar of events and sports teams.
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive health plans (Cigna), mental health support, wellbeing program, flexible time off, generous family planning and caregiver support, and a commitment to work‑life balance.
- **Growth opportunities**: Work on cutting‑edge autonomous vehicle technology alongside some of the brightest minds in AI, engineering, computer vision, and more. Offers internships and re‑entry programs (via Path Forward) for career returners.
- **Recruitment process**: Uses AI tools to assist in reviewing applications but final decisions are human. No fees are charged at any stage – watch for recruitment scams [zoox.com/journal/landing-a-job-zoox](https://zoox.com/journal/landing-a-job-zoox)

## Sources
1. [Zoox official website](https://zoox.com)
2. [Zoox About page](https://zoox.com/about)
3. [Zoox Careers page](https://zoox.com/careers)
4. [Zoox job openings on Lever](https://jobs.lever.co/zoox)
5. [Zoox hiring and interview process](https://zoox.com/journal/landing-a-job-zoox)

## Other roles at Zoox

- [Team Lead, Vehicle Technicians](https://feeny.ai/job/team-lead-vehicle-technicians-zoox-san-francisco-fm78xhnkbtvc) — San Francisco, CA
- [Human Resources Generalist](https://feeny.ai/job/human-resources-generalist-zoox-foster-city-94tbpn6kg9b8) — Foster City, CA
- [Manufacturing Test Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-test-infrastructure-engineer-zoox-foster-city-eq18925fgss3) — Foster City, CA
- [Staff Systems Engineer, Simulation Systems Verification and Validation Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-systems-engineer-simulation-systems-verification-and-validation-lead-zoox-mtbxccfhzzjf) — Foster City, CA
- [Systems Engineer, Motion Controls Safety](https://feeny.ai/job/systems-engineer-motion-controls-safety-zoox-foster-city-r02y5xhnw15v) — Foster City, CA
- [Senior Software Engineer, C++ Vehicle Experience](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-c-vehicle-experience-zoox-foster-city-nvkjvt6wekm9) — Foster City, CA
- [Senior/Staff Technical Product Manager, Operational Design Domain (ODD) Tools](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-technical-product-manager-operational-design-domain-odd-tools-zoox-ssjgcn6rpzze) — Foster City, CA
- [Head of Contingent Workforce & Travel](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-contingent-workforce-travel-zoox-foster-city-rkcgbt6b81v8) — Foster City, CA
- [Mechatronics Engineer - Closures](https://feeny.ai/job/mechatronics-engineer-closures-zoox-foster-city-68m3dz5tmx0t) — Foster City, CA
- [Contract Student Worker - Software Engineer (40 hrs/wk)](https://feeny.ai/job/contract-student-worker-software-engineer-40-hrs-wk-zoox-foster-city-3zs433c2yzqp) — Foster City, CA