Software Engineer - Simulation Motion Planning

jobs.frontdoordefense.com - Jobboard; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Paid time off

Long-term and short-term disability insurance

Life insurance

Job summary

Zoox is seeking a Software Engineer - Simulation Motion Planning to develop realistic human behavior models for traffic simulations to enhance autonomous vehicle validation. This role involves populating simulated environments with intelligent participants and pushing the state of the art in traffic behavior modeling.

The ideal candidate will possess a Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant field, fluency in C++, and strong mathematical skills. Opportunities for career development and benefits are part of the comprehensive package offered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• PhD or 4+ years of experience in a related field.
• Fluency in C++ is essential.
• Strong mathematics skills including trigonometry, linear algebra, and calculus.
• Experience with motion planning, control systems, and state estimation.

Responsibilities

• Populate the simulated roads with intelligent participants.
• Create realistic behaviors for cars, pedestrians, and other road users.
• Enhance traffic modeling to reflect real-world behaviors.
• Collaborate with AI software teams, QA, and Validation Engineers.

Skills

Fluency in C++

Mathematics skills

Motion planning

Control systems

Constrained optimization

State estimation

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in relevant field

PhD or 4+ years of experience

Tools

Python

Job description

Software Engineer - Simulation Motion Planning

Develop realistic human behavior models for traffic simulation to enhance autonomous vehicle validation.

Location: Foster City, California, United States

Compensation: $160,000 - 235,000 USD / year

Job Tags: Software

About the Role

Simulation is essential to Zoox's mission. Zoox uses simulation to develop our driving software, validate safety, and analyze our real-world performance. Our team's work directly impacts how rapidly and successfully Zoox will achieve its goals.

For our simulators to successfully validate our autonomous driving stack, we need to realistically model and replicate the worlds we will be driving in. This includes modeling and simulating human behaviors, specifically traffic and other pedestrian behaviors. The challenge is that the simulated humans need to show realistic and representative behavior — we want our agents to jaywalk as a human might do, and also replicate a wide range of behaviors that we encounter while driving in real cities.

In This Role, You Will:

• Populate the simulated roads with intelligent participants.
• Create simulated cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, etc. to behave realistically by default, and tunable to create a full gamut of traffic/agent behaviors.
• Push the state of the art in traffic and behavior modeling to capture real-world behaviors as closely as possible.
• Work closely with various teams — including AI software teams, QA, and Validation Engineers — to push autonomous driving forward.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
• PhD or 4+ years of experience in a related field
• Fluency in C++
• Mathematics skills, including trigonometry, linear algebra, and calculus
• Experience with motion planning, control systems, constrained optimization, and state estimation

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience in game development, traffic simulation, motion planning, or pathfinding
• Experience in automotive, robotics, data science, or machine learning
• Familiarity with Python

Compensation

There 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 $160,000 to $235,000. A sign‑on bonus may be part of a compensation package. Compensation will vary based on geographic location, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Benefits

Zoox also offers a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (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.

We are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

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.