Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Core Connectivity

Zoox; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 255,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Unpaid time off

Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights

Amazon RSUs

Health insurance

Long-term care insurance

Long-term and short-term disability保险

Life insurance

Job summary

Zoox is seeking a senior transport/network software engineer to design and build low-latency inter-process and inter-host transport in C++ for our autonomous vehicle stack. You will optimize zero-copy data paths, shared-memory buffers, and lock-free queues on Linux at scale.

You will lead cross-team designs, evolve protobuf-based schemas, and ensure delivery, ordering, and latency guarantees for applications built on the transport. Strong systems fundamentals required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, electrical / computer engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of experience in software development.
• Strong modern C++ on Linux, in large codebases with performance-critical paths.
• A background in transport or networking software, such as messaging systems, network protocols, or communication between distributed systems.
• Experience building low-latency systems, and a track record of measuring and reducing tail latency, using techniques such as zero-copy, shared memory, lock-free data structures, and cache-aware data layout.
• Solid systems fundamentals: concurrency, memory management, process lifecycle, sockets and the Linux networking stack.

Responsibilities

• Design and build low-latency inter-process and inter-host transport in C++: zero-copy data paths, shared-memory buffers, and lock-free queues.
• Make the transport hold up when processes crash or restart, hosts start out of order, and networks drop or delay packets. Chase fleet and simulation issues to root cause and fix them in the design.
• Build the pub/sub and RPC messaging APIs application teams build on, so they get the delivery, ordering, and latency guarantees they need without having to understand the transport underneath.
• Evolve message schemas and the Protocol Buffers based serialization layer: schema evolution, compact encodings, and moving existing users onto new formats without breaking anyone.
• Set technical direction for a part of the stack and lead designs that span several teams.

Skills

C++

Linux

Distributed systems

Low-latency

Concurrency

Performance optimization

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, electrical / computer engineering, or equivalent experience

Tools

Shared-memory IPC

zero-copy

lock-free data structures

Protocol Buffers

DDS/ROS 2/iceoryx

Job description

Zoox is building the world's most advanced self-driving hardware and software solution. Inside the vehicle, dozens of processes across several compute hosts exchange sensor data, perception output, planner decisions, and control commands many times a second. Every millisecond spent moving that data is a millisecond the vehicle doesn't have to react, so the transport has to be fast and predictable, and keep working when a process restarts or a host comes up late.

The Core Connectivity team owns how that data moves, and how fast: shared-memory IPC between processes, transport between hosts, serialization, the RPC and messaging patterns application teams build on, and time synchronization across hosts. Nearly every software team at Zoox builds on this layer, so you'll work closely with the teams that use it, and your work shows up directly in how the vehicle drives.

In This Role, You Will

• Design and build low-latency inter-process and inter-host transport in C++: zero-copy data paths, shared-memory buffers, and lock-free queues. Measure and drive down end-to-end latency and jitter as message volume grows.
• Make the transport hold up when processes crash or restart, hosts start out of order, and networks drop or delay packets. Chase fleet and simulation issues to root cause and fix them in the design.
• Build the pub/sub and RPC messaging APIs application teams build on, so they get the delivery, ordering, and latency guarantees they need without having to understand the transport underneath.
• Evolve message schemas and the Protocol Buffers based serialization layer: schema evolution, compact encodings, and moving existing users onto new formats without breaking anyone.
• Set technical direction for a part of the stack and lead designs that span several teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, electrical / computer engineering, or equivalent experience, and 7+ years of experience in software development.
• Strong modern C++ on Linux, in large codebases with performance-critical paths.
• A background in transport or networking software, such as messaging systems, network protocols, or communication between distributed systems.
• Experience building low-latency systems, and a track record of measuring and reducing tail latency, using techniques such as zero-copy, shared memory, lock-free data structures, and cache-aware data layout.
• Solid systems fundamentals: concurrency, memory management, process lifecycle, sockets and the Linux networking stack.

Bonus Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with shared-memory IPC, pub/sub or RPC middleware such as DDS, ROS 2, or iceoryx, or serialization frameworks such as Protocol Buffers, nanopb, or FlatBuffers.
• Experience with PTP (IEEE 1588) or other time synchronization across machines, or with UDP multicast, MTU and fragmentation behavior, or time-sensitive networking.
• Robotics, automotive, aerospace, or another real-time or safety-relevant domain.

$255,000 - $320,000 a year

Base Salary Range

There are three major components to compensation for this position: salary, Amazon Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), and Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights. A sign-on bonus may be offered as part of the compensation package. The listed range applies only to the base salary. Compensation will vary based on geographic location and level. Leveling, as well as positioning within a level, is determined by a range of factors, including, but not limited to, a candidate's relevant years of experience, domain knowledge, and interview performance. The salary range listed in this posting is representative of the range of levels Zoox is considering for this position.

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
• life insurance

About Zoox

Zoox is developing the first ground-up, fully autonomous vehicle fleet and the supporting ecosystem required to bring this technology to market. Sitting at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and design, Zoox aims to provide the next generation of mobility-as-a-service in urban environments. We’re looking for top talent that shares our passion and wants to be part of a fast-moving and highly execution-oriented team.

Accommodations

If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process please reach out to [email protected] or your assigned recruiter.

A Final Note

You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position. Here at Zoox, we know that diverse perspectives foster the innovation we need to be successful, and we are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.