Software Performance Engineer, Zoox

$211-300k

+ Amazon Restricted Stock Units & Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights

SQL
Python
Scala
Linux
C++
Bazel
Git
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Foster City, CA

Zoox

Autonomous vehicle technology

Job no longer available

Zoox

Autonomous vehicle technology

1001+ employees

B2CArtificial IntelligenceCarsTransportElectric VehiclesAutomation

Job no longer available

$211-300k

+ Amazon Restricted Stock Units & Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights

SQL
Python
Scala
Linux
C++
Bazel
Git
Senior and Expert level
San Francisco Bay Area

Office located in Foster City, CA

1001+ employees

B2CArtificial IntelligenceCarsTransportElectric VehiclesAutomation

Company mission

To reimagine transportation from the ground up.

Role

Who you are

  • BS in computer science or related field
  • 6+ years of professional experience in software development or related fields
  • Strong knowledge of C++ and experience in large code bases
  • Familiar with CPU system architecture and OS fundamentals
  • Comfortable in Linux development environments
  • Experience with Git, Bazel, and CI pipelines
  • Hands-on experience in development, debugging, and profiling of complex multi-process real time systems like game engines or robot systems)
  • Good communication and organization skills, with a logical approach to problem solving, good time management, and task prioritization skills

Desirable

  • Experience using various Linux performance monitor tools, such as perf, eBPF, Perfetto
  • Kernel and/or driver development experience
  • Experience with software & hardware benchmarking and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) systems
  • Proficiency with Python or Scala is a plus
  • Acquainted with a firm/hard real-time operating system environment
  • Proficiency with SQL and data platforms such as DataBricks, Looker, and ETL pipelines
  • Experience debugging and optimizing GPU kernels using tools like Nsight Systems and Compute

What the job involves

  • The Software Core Performance team’s mission is to analyze, optimize, and provide guidance to the software and hardware teams in order to meet expected system performance targets
  • As a performance software engineer within the Software Core Performance team, you will instrument, monitor, analyze, and optimize algorithms that are performance-critical. Your broad experience in developing, debugging, and optimizing software will enable AI software to run as efficiently as possible
  • Build real-time instrumentation for performance monitoring (CPU, GPU, latency, memory) of the online system, and benchmarking frameworks to support offline performance evaluation
  • Build tools and scripts to evaluate and analyze performance at scale in CI, as well as on vehicle. Establish budgets for existing architectures, and provide data to define next-gen architectures
  • Analyze performance metrics in online software to identify resource utilization hotspots and root causes. Propose and co-implement actionable solutions with software component teams
  • Support teams in helping to squeeze out the maximum performance of their code, while minimizing resource contention
  • Work as part of the Core team to build a middleware framework that promotes efficient and performant code development
  • Work cross-functionally to ensure Zoox software runs optimally across the fleet

Our take

Zoox, a self-driving vehicle company, was founded to make personal transportation safer and more enjoyable for all. It has aimed to achieve this goal by creating a new mode of driverless transportation, thus eradicating the safety and logistical issues that come with human drivers.

It revealed its custom vehicle design in December 2020, showcasing something different from just a car without a driver. Uniquely, all four wheels are independent of one another, and the vehicles have no front or back, making them more agile than a standard car. Zoox claims that it is different from other industry players because it has created an entire driverless ecosystem, including the vehicle itself, allowing it to have more control.

The company is fast becoming a major player in an industry that is predicted to be worth $2 trillion by 2030. Electric motors are highly desirable, particularly in an urban environment, as governments look for ways to reduce emissions and improve air quality. Zoox is aiming to play a vital role in this evolution towards more sustainable urban mobility. Amazon acquired the company in 2020 and, despite a general downturn in the sector through 2022, is building a Zoox factory and budgeting $1 billion per year for future development and production.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist

Insights

Led by a woman
Top investors

Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

24% employee growth in 12 months

Company

Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)

Oct 2019

$200m

CONVERTIBLE

Jul 2018

$500m

SERIES B

Total funding: $1.2bn

Company 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

Company values

  • WE'RE DOING ONE THING THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING: Safer, cleaner, more enjoyable mobility—for everyone. One product and one mission, bringing us together and driving us forward.
  • IT’S BIGGER THAN ANY OF US: Collaboration isn’t just something we talk about. It’s the only way we get this done. It takes trust, humility, and openness. And it means we pull together like no other team
  • ONE ZOOX, ONE CREW: Zoox is an inclusive, diverse, supportive community. One where we celebrate together, face challenges together, and grow stronger together. And where we work hard to ensure no one is left out and everyone is part of the story.
  • EVERY DAY IS A MILESTONE: From each line of code to each mile on the road, everything we do is another step forward in our mission. We ask questions, tackle problems head-on, and celebrate the progress we’re making

Company HQ

Vintage Park, Foster City, CA

Leadership

Aicha Evans

(CEO, not founder)

Having studied at the George Washington University, Aicha started her career with 2 years in Engineering at Skyworks before joining Intel, where she spent over 11 years. She left her role as Corporate Strategy Officer in February 2019 to join Zoox as CEO.

Jesse Levinson

(CTO)

Prior to co-founding Zoox, completed a Computer Science PhD at Stanford University. Also created Pro HDR, a million+ selling mobile photography app.

Salary benchmarks

We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.

Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.

Share this job

View 120 more jobs at Zoox