Zoox is building the world's most advanced self-driving hardware and software solution, and nearly every part of it depends on moving data reliably. Sensor frames to perception, planner decisions to vehicle controls, telemetry to the cloud, and remote operator video back down again. All of it crosses process, host, and network boundaries under hard latency and reliability budgets, on a vehicle that has to keep working when a link degrades or a network gets congested.
The Middleware Transport team owns that data path end to end: in-vehicle messaging (pub/sub, RPC, inter-process and inter-host transport), the vehicle's internal network, and vehicle-to-cloud connectivity. It also owns the transport and serialization abstractions the rest of the software organization builds on. Every one of those paths crosses a team boundary, so the work happens alongside firmware, product security, simulation, manufacturing, and IT, and those partners rely on this team for transport and networking depth to achieve their goals. As the team leader you will own the roadmap and the release commitments, and you will spend a real share of your time in those partnerships.
In this role, you will:
Own the roadmap, staffing, and release commitments across the team's messaging, in-vehicle network, and cloud connectivity work.
Lead and grow a team of software engineers, run their performance and promotion cycles, and hire into the gaps.
Represent the team in cross-functional programs across firmware, product security, simulation, fleet operations, and infrastructure, and build the relationships that keep shared work moving.
Set the technical bar. Make the architecture calls stick, and make sure the abstractions the team ships are ones other teams want to build on.
Balance interrupt-driven reliability work against long-horizon architecture, and be explicit with partners about the tradeoff.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, electrical / computer engineering, or equivalent experience.
- 9+ years of experience in software development, with 4+ years in a leadership role managing software engineers.
- Strong grounding in at least one of: networked distributed systems, pub/sub and RPC middleware, vehicle or embedded networking, or transport protocols. Enough depth to hold your own in a design review without needing to run it.
- Strong C++ programming experience with large code bases and technical dependencies.
- A track record of driving work that spans organizational boundaries, where you did not control the people doing the work.
Bonus Qualifications
- Robotics, automotive, aerospace, or another safety-relevant domain.
- Hands-on experience with DDS, PTP and time synchronization, QUIC or multipath transport, or Ethernet switch configuration and diagnostics at fleet scale.
- Experience building platform abstractions with internal customers, including the migration and adoption side.
Zoox Foster City, California, USA Office
4000 E 3rd Ave, Foster City, CA, United States, 94404
Zoox Foster City, California, USA Office
1149 Chess Drive, Foster City, CA, United States, 94404
Zoox Fremont, California, USA Office
47540 Kato Road, Fremont, CA, United States, 94538
Zoox San Francisco, California, USA Office
60 Broadway St, San Francisco, CA, United States, 94111
Similar Jobs
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
