Senior / Staff Software Systems Engineer - Simulation Evaluation & Validation

Simulation is central to ensuring the safety and scalability of autonomous vehicles at Zoox. In this role, you will develop metrics and evaluation pipelines to assess simulator fidelity and guide improvements to our GenAI-powered simulator of virtual worlds with dynamic agents and realistic sensor data.

You’ll collaborate with autonomy, safety, and simulation teams to define quantitative validation criteria for simulator fidelity, and use exploratory data analysis to root-cause gaps in simulator performance. Your work will directly support Zoox scaling autonomous driving across multiple cities in increasingly complex environments.

In this role, you will:

• Design and implement metrics to measure the accuracy of simulated sensors, agents, and virtual environments.
• Develop robust strategies for simulator evaluation, including dataset mining, and implement these in large-scale evaluation pipelines.
• Write design proposals and drive execution while proactively communicating risks to partner teams.
• Drive consensus on validation methodologies with cross-functional teams in Autonomy, Safety, and Simulation.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in quantitative evaluation, autonomous robotics, or sensor data analysis (lidar, camera, radar)
• Proficiency in Python and data analysis (e.g., Pandas, NumPy, SQL), with a strong foundation in data visualization
• Working knowledge of applied statistical methods (e.g., histograms, probability distributions, simple hypothesis testing)
• Strong communication skills and thrives in dynamic environments by proactively seeking clarity
• BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field

Bonus Qualifications:

• Experience with autonomous vehicle software stack (e.g., Perception, Prediction, Planning)
• Experience implementing large-scale evaluation pipelines
• Experience using applied statistics for system validation (e.g., confidence intervals, p-values)