Engineering Manager, Software Core Connectivity
- Salary
- USD 227,000 - 322,000 / per-year-salary
- Level
- Lead
- Work type
- On-site · Foster City
Not stated in the posting: visa.
Open. First seen 22 October 2026.
About the role
Zoox is building the world's most advanced self-driving hardware and software solution, and nearly every part of it depends on moving data reliably. Sensor frames to perception, planner decisions to vehicle controls, telemetry to the cloud, and remote operator video back down again. All of it crosses process, host, and network boundaries under hard latency and reliability budgets, on a vehicle that has to keep working when a link degrades or a network gets congested.
The Software Core Connectivity team owns that data path end to end: in-vehicle messaging (pub/sub, RPC, inter-process and inter-host transport), the vehicle's internal network, and vehicle-to-cloud connectivity. It also owns the transport and serialization abstractions the rest of the software organization builds on. Every one of those paths crosses a team boundary, so the work happens alongside firmware, product security, simulation, manufacturing, and IT, and those partners rely on this team for transport and networking depth to achieve their goals.
As the team leader you will own the roadmap and the release commitments, and you will spend a real share of your time in those partnerships.
In this role, you will:
Own the roadmap, staffing, and release commitments across the team's messaging, in-vehicle network, and cloud connectivity work.
Lead and grow a team of software engineers, run their performance and promotion cycles, and hire into the gaps.
Represent the team in cross-functional programs across firmware, product security, simulation, fleet operations, and infrastructure, and build the relationships that keep shared work moving.
Set the technical bar. Make the architecture calls stick, and make sure the abstractions the team ships are ones other teams want to build on.
Balance interrupt-driven reliability work against long-horizon architecture, and be explicit with partners about the tradeoff.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, electrical / computer engineering, or equivalent experience.
- 9+ years of experience in software development, with 4+ years in a leadership role managing software engineers.
- Strong grounding in at least one of: networked distributed systems, pub/sub and RPC middleware, vehicle or embedded networking, or transport protocols. Enough depth to hold your own in a design review without needing to run it.
- Strong C++ programming experience with large code bases and technical dependencies.
- A track record of driving work that spans organizational boundaries, where you did not control the people doing the work.
Bonus Qualifications
- Robotics, automotive, aerospace, or another safety-relevant domain.
- Hands-on experience with DDS, PTP and time synchronization, QUIC or multipath transport, or Ethernet switch configuration and diagnostics at fleet scale.
- Experience building platform abstractions with internal customers, including the migration and adoption side.
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.
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Zoox's standard text
Accommodations
If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process please reach out to accommodations@zoox.com 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.
What this role asks for
In most of Zoox's ads
Machine Learning
Named in most of its open postings, whatever the role.
87% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Zoox's standard text, folded away below.
Compared with Zoox's other open jobs.
The team: Software Systems HIRES STEADILY
This role is one of 29 open in Software Systems. 9 were posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in October: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Machine Learning (28 of 29), Python (18 of 29), C++ (17 of 29), Embedded Systems (10 of 29), Linux (8 of 29), Bash (7 of 29), PyTorch (7 of 29)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Software Engineer, ML Training Optimization posted Oct 16
- Senior/Staff Software Engineer, ML Training Optimization posted Oct 16
- Senior / Staff Machine Learning Engineer - 3D Sensor Simulation posted Oct 12
- Machine Learning Engineer - 3D Sensor Simulation posted Oct 12
- Engineering Manager, Robot Data Visualization posted Oct 6
- Engineering Manager, ML Performance Optimization posted Oct 6
- Senior Software Engineer, Continuous Deployment posted Sep 29
- Software Engineer - Embedded Linux Operating Systems posted Sep 29
- Senior Software Engineer, Continuous Integration posted Sep 22
- Staff/Senior Staff Software Engineer - Product Security posted Sep 10
- Senior Software Engineer - Robot Software Infrastructure posted Sep 8
- Software Engineer - Robot Software Infrastructure posted Sep 8
- Software Engineer - Pipeline Infrastructure & Integration posted Sep 8
- Senior Software Engineer - Pipeline Infrastructure & Integration posted Sep 8
- Software Engineer - C++ On-Vehicle Data posted Aug 25
- Staff/Senior Staff Software Engineer - Full Stack posted Aug 21
- Engineering Manager, Simulation Scenario Generation posted Aug 13
- Staff Software Engineer, HPC posted Aug 10
- Senior Technical Program Manager - Vehicle Platform & Autonomy Integration posted Aug 5
- Software Systems Engineer - Security posted Aug 5
- Senior Software Systems Engineer - Security posted Aug 5
- Senior/Staff Software Engineer - Embedded Linux Operating Systems posted Aug 3
- Senior Software Engineer, Build Infrastructure posted Jul 10
- Senior Software Engineer, Vehicle Deployment posted Jul 8
- Software Engineer, ML Inference Optimization posted May 28
- Engineering Manager, Performance Optimization posted Apr 17
- Senior AI Developer Productivity Engineer posted Feb 10
- Senior/Staff Software Engineer, ML Inference Optimization posted Oct 28
From the team and dates on Zoox's own job board.
See Engineering Manager salaries in the United States →
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