Principal Software Engineer, Perception Architect

Zoox•Foster City, CA

12h

About The Position

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.

Requirements

Ph.D. or MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field with a focus on Computer Vision.
8+ years in autonomous systems with at least 2 years in an architectural role, shipping and evolving perception systems
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.
Deep understanding of hardware acceleration, component budgeting and transition to new platforms.
Strong foundation in 3D geometry, linear algebra, and probabilistic robotics.
Proficiency in C++ (production-grade) and Python (rapid prototyping).
Ability to run experiments across system components and run metrics platforms.
Curious, Data driven, with ability to translate complex technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

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.