Software Engineer (Motion Planning)

• On the Motion Planning team at Zoox, you’ll be dedicated to improving the driving behaviors of the robot on public roads
• The Planner’s job is to figure out where the robot is going and how to get there safely in situations as complex as those found in Downtown San Francisco or on the Las Vegas Strip
• This is a cutting-edge problem, which requires teamwork and collaboration across a broad set of experts spanning Planner, Perception, Prediction, Operations, and more
• Together, you will create the next generation of algorithmic improvements to expand our robot’s ability to drive in some of the most complex situations found on public roads
• Safety is foundational at Zoox, so you will take a measured approach – develop a principled modification to the Planner, test in simulation and on closed courses, and team up with our safety drivers for on-road testing
• Create principled algorithmic improvements to specific areas of driving behavior and implement those changes in our code base
• Use our extensive backend tooling to test your changes across many different driving situations at the press of a button
• Lead on-vehicle drive reviews to generate actionable feedback on driving performance. Use this experience to help the team learn and make improvements
• Attend conferences and survey literature to stay informed on the most recent developments in the fields of Robotics and Motion Planning
• Write and file patents for novel technologies you develop

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

• Demonstrated ability to create real-time motion planning algorithms
• Fluency in C++
• Understanding of configuration spaces and a variety of planning techniques (A*, RRTs, PRMs, etc.)
• Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field and relevant experience
• Experience with ROS, pose estimation, SLAM, probabilistic filtering, 3D data, or CUDA
• Experience with autonomous robots and machine learning or data-driven development processes
• Significant contributions to geometric- and/or sampling-based planning algorithms
• You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position