Senior Software Development Engineer in Test - Verifiation And Validation

Zoox•Foster City, CA

About The Position

Zoox is on an ambitious journey to develop a full-stack autonomous mobility solution for cities and safely deploy such a robotaxi solution. The System Design and Mission Assurance (SDMA) team plays a foundational role in the company's success, responsible for constructing the safety case and fail-operational design for our autonomous driving robots before public road deployment. We are seeking a highly motivated V&V software development engineer in test (SDET) to join this systems-engineering department. As a V&V SDET, you will be a technical lead, owning the end-to-end validation strategy for critical safety systems while architecting and implementing the advanced software infrastructure required to verify them. This role is coding-intensive, focused on building solutions for high-fidelity testing, scalable automation frameworks, and sophisticated data analysis tools to ensure successful compliance to requirements and mission success. Some examples of tools this role supports: Framework for event definition, orchestration, and verification High-performance C++ and Python-based emulators for vehicle sensors (e.g., Radar, Lidar, and Inertial Measurement Units) to enable realistic, real-time fault injection Robust communication bridges between simulation environments and physical vehicle hardware Automating test management and reporting within lifecycle management tools, e.g. Polarion, JAMA, DOORS.

Requirements

Good technical communication skills, with the ability to summarize complex test failures and provide clear impact assessments for our tests, tools, and pipelines.
Demonstrated experience delivering complex projects in Python, including the use of AI-based coding, such as for infrastructure development, tooling and automated test writing.
Deep understanding of HIL and SIL methodologies, including real-time fault injection
Ownership from design, to implementation and maintenance of automated testing pipelines (e.g., using Bamboo, Jenkins, or similar) and developing custom automation plugins.
Practical knowledge of Linux internals and networking protocols used in high-throughput real-time systems.
Bachelors or higher degree in Mechatronics Engineering, Computer Science or a relevant technical field, such as Data Science or Electrical Engineering.
7+ of experience in the above, with demonstrated ownership of 3+ complex projects

Nice To Haves

Strong C++ Pytest customization experience
Background in autonomous systems or safety-critical robotics validation.
Experience applying Generative AI or Machine Learning tools to code, audit and improve test coverage and documentation.
Experience with data engineering tools like SQL, pyspark, Looker or Databricks for large-scale performance analysis.
Experience with real-time communication protocols (e.g., DDS, I2C, SPI, CAN, GMSL2).

Responsibilities

Lead the design and maintenance of large-scale event-driven software/hardware -in-the-loop (SIL/HIL) testing frameworks, utilizing advanced software patterns to improve modularity and reduce code duplication.
Architect and manage end-to-end continuous integration (CI) pipelines to automate the execution of regression suites.
Lead root cause analysis for complex system-level failures, developing log mining scripts and visualization dashboards (e.g., Grafana, SQL-based notebooks) to triage failures and track performance metrics.
Perform gap analyses between high-level safety requirements and technical test implementations, including the development of intricate timing and prioritization patterns.
Lead end-to-end validation and clearance process for safety-critical monitors, such as for collision detection systems.