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Engineering Manager, Performance Optimization

Zoox · Foster City, CA

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Level
Manager
Team
Manufacturing
Industry
Automotive
Posted
30+ days ago

The role in 30 seconds

A management manufacturing role at Zoox (automotive) in Foster City, CA. You will lead a highly specialized team of software performance engineers in aggressively optimizing on-bot software runtime.

Tools it names
Robotics

Read from the posting. The full description is below.

From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026

Manufacturing Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $115k–$169k.

Median of the low and high ends of 126 live postings that list pay, out of 346 manufacturing engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.

California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →

How this role compares

Against 345 other live manufacturing postings in California.

Base pay
Not listed in this posting

Typical $111k–$159k, from 113 postings that list pay.

Experience asked
Not stated

Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.

Skills these teams ask for most

  • Tooling 51%
  • New product launch 49%
  • Root cause 39%
  • Automation 36%
  • CATIA / NX 27%
  • Machining 27%

✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.

At a glance

Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.

How to get in at this plant

Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.

  1. 1

    Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at Zoox

    We found 5 people at this company and state: 2 in this kind of role, 3 leaders, plus 1 likely hiring manager. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓

  2. 2

    Send a short, curious note

    One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.

    Write to Joshua → (free)
  3. 3

    Turn a reply into a short call

    Questions worth asking about this team:

    • What does a normal week look like on your team?
    • Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
    • How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
    • How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
  4. 4

    Apply with someone vouching for you

    If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.

  5. 5

    Bring proof to the interview

    One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.

This plant: Zoox in Foster City

13 other open roles at this site · 5 people we found in manufacturing roles at Zoox.

All 14 roles at Zoox →
Full description from ZooxAs posted on their careers site.Show

In this role, you will

  • ◆Manage a team of 8-to-10 engineers focused on optimizing the software performance of the on-bot autonomy software stack.
  • ◆Partner with Autonomy, ML Platform, Middleware, Sensors, and Hardware Architecture teams to meet strict system response (latency) and compute utilization targets.
  • ◆Achieve alignment between cross-functional leaders across the Software organization on compute resource allocations and budgets.
  • ◆Hire, grow, and develop talent in the realm of performance optimization.
  • ◆Build self-service force-multiplier frameworks & workflows that empower developers to deliver efficient & performant software.

Qualifications

  • ✓BS in computer science, computer engineering, or related field
  • ✓Proficiency with C++ & concurrent (parallel) execution systems
  • ✓Deep knowledge and understanding of the Linux operating system and GPU accelerated execution
  • ✓Proven track record of cross-functional collaboration and leadership alignment
  • ✓Prior experience managing teams of five or more full-time software engineers

Bonus

Qualifications

  • ✓Hands-on experience with GPU runtime frameworks (CUDA, TensorRT, or XLA)
  • ✓Experience in robotics, aviation, automotive, or high-performance computing space
  • ✓Have shipped real-time or near-real-time software autonomy or robotics software in production
  • ✓Experiencing debugging and optimizing CPU, GPU kernels, and ML models using tools like NVIDIA Nsight Systems and
  • ✓Compute, Perfetto or similar compute observability tools
Show full description ↓

Zoox is building the world's most advanced self-driving hardware and software solution. The efficiency demands of such a system require an expert fine tuning of both the compute hardware architecture as well as the algorithms and middleware that runs on it to achieve maximum throughput at the most optimal power levels.

The Software Performance team keeps the main onboard computer healthy and performant to ensure that our on-bot autonomy software meets its latency targets while also accommodating its safety goals. We are responsible for the efficient allocation of onboard compute resources (CPU/GPU/Memory/accelerators) ensuring contention is minimized and the autonomy stack executes harmoniously.

As the Onboard Execution team leader within the Performance team, you will lead a highly specialized team of software performance engineers in aggressively optimizing on-bot software runtime. This is a high impact role that sits at the intersection of ML Platform, Core, and Autonomy Software - ensuring that efficient compute utilization is a central tenet emphasized across the organization.

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