Senior Staff/Principal Software Engineer

Product Software is the core system responsible for efficiently managing Zoox's automated fleet operations. It assigns various jobs to autonomous vehicles, including rideshare trips, charging, cleaning, and other fleet management activities. It serves as the central intelligence that connects riders to robots and manages the overall fleet operations.
We are seeking an engineer to act as technical lead for Product Software. This person will shape the technical direction and development of the org, including ride assignments, charging coordination, and fleet optimization. They will be both a hands-on engineer writing and troubleshooting code, and a designer and reviewer of the team’s work.

In this role, you will:

• Architect and evolve Product Software's distributed systems to support scaling autonomous fleet operations
• Drive technical strategy and make key architectural decisions for the fleet management platform
• Lead design and implementation of high-availability, real-time scheduling and dispatch systems
• Partner with product, operations, and other engineering teams to define technical roadmap
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to a team of senior engineers
• Establish best practices for system reliability, performance, and operational excellence
• Drive cross-team initiatives to integrate Product Software with vehicle systems, customer apps, and operations tools

Required Skills & Experience:

• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with 7+ years building large-scale distributed systems
• Deep expertise in distributed systems design, soft real-time processing, and scalable architectures
• Proficiency in Kotlin, Go, Java, or similar languages for backend development
• Experience with event-driven architectures and message queuing systems
• Track record of leading complex technical initiatives across multiple teams
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) and microservices architecture
• Strong understanding of system reliability, monitoring, and operational concerns
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence technical direction

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with fleet management, logistics, or routing systems
• Background in optimization algorithms, scheduling, or constraint satisfaction problems
• Knowledge of autonomous vehicle systems and their operational requirements
• Experience with soft real-time scheduling and dispatch systems
• Track record of mentoring senior engineers and growing technical teams

CompensationThere are three major components to compensation for this position: salary, Amazon Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), and Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights. The salary will range from $280,000 to $400,000. A sign-on bonus may be part of a compensation package. Compensation will vary based on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.  
Zoox also offers a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (e.g. sick leave, vacation, bereavement), unpaid time off, Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights, Amazon RSUs, health insurance, long-term care insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, and life insurance.