Senior / Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Scene Intelligence

Zoox

Foster City, CA hybrid Until 8/21/2026 3+ years exp H-1B sponsor history First posted April 1, 2026 Last posted April 1, 2026

Job description

The Perception team at Zoox creates the "eyes and ears" of our self-driving robots. Navigating safely and efficiently in complex environments requires detecting, classifying, tracking, and understanding various attributes of surrounding objects—all in real-time and with exceptional accuracy.

As an engineer in the Scene Understanding team, you will develop advanced Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models that perceive our vehicle's surroundings to identify hazards and make driving suggestions. You will utilize VLA models for detecting rare events and ensuring safe driving in these situations. You'll work with state-of-the-art machine learning models that operate in real-time on our robotaxi platform with minimal latency. Collaborating with world-class engineers and researchers across sensors, planning, and other teams, you'll have access to premium sensor data and cutting-edge infrastructure to validate your algorithms in real-world conditions.

In this role, you will...

Design and train Vision-Language-Action (VLA) solutions for robotaxis

Lead end-to-end data strategy, including mining, auto-labeling, and dataset construction to power our ML flywheel

Lead the full post-training stack for VLMs and VLAs, including Continual Pre-training (CPT) on domain-specific driving data, Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) for instruction following.

Utilize our large-scale data pipelines and ML infrastructure to research, prototype, and deploy solutions that improve driving behavior

Partner with cross-functional teams to integrate perception signals

Qualifications

MS or PhD in Computer Science or related field

Background in deep learning solutions for VLM and VLA models

Track record in post-training large-scale models, CPT, SFT, RL

Hands-on experience with production ML pipelines, including dataset creation, training frameworks, and metrics

Expertise in Python libraries (PyTorch, NumPy, Pandas, VLLM)

Bonus Qualifications

Deep knowledge of cutting-edge computer vision techniques

Publications in top-tier conferences (CVPR, ICCV, RSS, ICRA)

Experience with integrating large language models to various tasks.

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.

Compensation (from employer):
189000–290000 USD per year

About this role

Summary

Develop advanced VLA models for perception and safe driving in autonomous vehicles.

Job title

Senior / Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Scene Intelligence

Experience level

3+ years

Minimum experience

3+ years exp

Industry

software

Location requirements

Foster City, CA; remote work not specified

Salary

189000–290000 USD per year

Visa sponsorship

H-1B sponsor history

Management role

Skills & keywords

Required skills

PythonPyTorchNumPyPandasML pipelines

Preferred skills

computer visionpublicationslarge language models

Specializations

machine learningvision-language-actiondeep learningcomputer vision

Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Foster City, CA, USA

Hybrid City