Staff Software Engineer, HPC

Zoox; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 230,000 - 309,000; Full time

Job summary

Zoox is seeking an experienced Staff Software Engineer to design, scale, and operate our High-Performance Computing infrastructure. This pivotal role will modernize the HPC platform built on Ray.io, SLURM, and Kubernetes to boost reliability, scalability, and developer velocity across Zoox teams.

You will own multi-region orchestration strategies, work with Autonomy and Software stakeholders, and mentor junior engineers to strengthen Zoox’s compute capabilities and data workflows.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems in production.
• Proficiency with Ray.io, including Ray Core and Ray Data, or equivalent technologies.
• Experience with Kubernetes for heterogeneous workloads.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure on AWS or similar providers.
• Track record of shipping and operating reliable, highly available, scalable infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize development work and build cross-functional consensus around technical tradeoffs.
• Proficiency with Python.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement core services and abstractions for distributed compute infrastructure supporting hundreds of thousands of concurrent jobs.
• Lead multi-quarter, cross-team initiatives that improve the HPC platform.
• Create production-grade APIs, SDKs, and tools for Zoox engineers to run large-scale workloads.
• Design and improve job scheduling algorithms and auto-scaling policies for reliability and resource availability.
• Develop capacity planning tools and forecasting models for growing compute needs.
• Mentor junior engineers and guide career development.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Python programming

Cross-functional collaboration

Cloud infrastructure

System reliability

Tools

Ray.io

Kubernetes

SLURM

AWS

Job description

Zoox is looking for an experienced Staff Software Engineer to build, scale, and operate our custom High-Performance Computing infrastructure. As Zoox scales its autonomous vehicle development, our HPC platform must keep pace with rapidly growing compute, storage, and scheduling demands across the company. You will modernize our HPC platform—built on industry-leading technologies like Ray.io, SLURM, and Kubernetes—with a focus on reliability, scalability, and world-class developer velocity.

These HPC services form the backbone of development workflows across all Zoox software teams, from data engineering to training our AI models in Perception, Planner, Prediction, to Simulation, and more. You will have a direct impact on the productivity and effectiveness of every engineering team at Zoox.

The position comes with a high degree of independence and the opportunity to define Zoox’s HPC platform strategy, both technically and organizationally. You will work closely with stakeholders in Autonomy and Software teams to understand their workload requirements and translate them into robust, scalable infrastructure.

In this role, you will:

• Design and implement core services and abstractions for distributed compute infrastructure supporting hundreds of thousands of concurrent jobs

• Work with customer teams and other infrastructure teams to build a multiyear software engineering roadmap for the HPC platform

• Lead multi-quarter, cross team initiatives that drive org-wide improvements

• Create production-grade APIs, SDKs, and tools that make it easy for engineers across Zoox to run large-scale distributed workloads

• Design and improve job scheduling algorithms and auto-scaling policies to maximize reliability and resource availability

• Design multi-region orchestration strategies that optimize for data locality, reliability, and performance

• Identify and resolve systemic reliability and performance issues through profiling, analysis, and collaboration with workload owners across multiple teams

• Evaluate new technologies and paradigms that improve Zoox’s computational and storage capabilities

• Develop capacity planning tools and forecasting models to support Zoox’s growing compute needs

• Mentor junior engineers, guiding them through their career development

Qualifications

• Experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems in production

• Experience with Ray.io, particularly Ray Core and Ray Data (or equivalent technologies)

• Experience with Kubernetes, particularly for heterogeneous workloads

• Experience with cloud infrastructure on AWS or similar providers

• Track record of shipping and operating reliable, highly availablescalable infrastructure

• Demonstrated ability to prioritize development work and build cross-functional consensus around technical tradeoffs

• Proficiency with Python

Bonus Qualifications

• Exposure to machine learning workloads (training, inference, data generation)

• Experience with Kubernetes or SLURM at scale (>10k+ nodes)

• Experience with SLURM workload manager and advanced scheduling policies

• Background in algorithmic optimization or operations research

• Experience building developer tools and platforms used by large engineering organizations

$230,000 - $309,000 a year

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, and 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.

Follow us on LinkedIn

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.