Engineering Manager, Simulation Scenario Generation
Zoox · Foster City, CA
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Degree
- Required (or equivalent experience)
- Experience asked
- 7+ years
- Industry
- Automotive
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A management manufacturing role at Zoox (automotive) in Foster City, CA.
- They ask for
- 7+ years · degree required (or equivalent experience)
- Tools it names
- Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ), Robotics, Tooling
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 $114k–$167k.
Median of the low and high ends of 117 live postings that list pay, out of 320 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 319 other live manufacturing postings in California.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- More than usual (7+ vs 5+)
Typical $111k–$157k, from 105 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Tooling 53%
- New product launch 51%
- Root cause 40%
- Automation 35%
- Machining 29%
- CATIA / NX 29%
✓ = 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
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
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
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
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
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.
- Senior Quality Engineer · Quality · Senior
- Seating and Passive Safety HW Validation Engineer · Quality
- Engineering Manager, ML Performance Optimization · Manufacturing · Manager
- Crash Safety Test and Validation Engineer · Quality
- Validation Engineer, Feature Integration · Quality
- Senior Supplier Quality Engineer · Quality · Senior
Full description from ZooxAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
In this role, you will
- ◆Manage and grow a mixed team of software and machine learning engineers building simulation tools that are used broadly across engineering to validate autonomous vehicle safety and performance.
- ◆Set and drive the team's technical direction, investing in agentic tooling to automate manual simulation workflows and deploying in-house generative models for exploratory vehicle testing.
- ◆Lead high-visibility, cross-functional initiatives to scale the company's generative scenario creation capabilities, partnering with stakeholders across engineering and earning executive sponsorship.
- ◆Own delivery of simulation tooling and services, including scenario authoring tools (e.g., 3D visual editors) used broadly across engineering teams.
- ◆Ensure simulation tooling keeps pace with new Operational Design Domain (ODD) capabilities and upcoming autonomy milestones.
- ◆Recruit, mentor, and develop engineers across both software and ML disciplines, including hiring ML engineers; build a strong team culture and clear growth paths.
- ◆Partner with product, safety, autonomy, and validation stakeholders to prioritize the roadmap, translate business needs into technical execution, and deliver against autonomy milestones.
Qualifications
- ✓7+ years of software engineering experience, with demonstrated technical depth in simulation, developer tools, infrastructure, or a related domain.
- ✓2+ years directly managing software and/or ML engineering teams, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management.
- ✓Experience partnering cross-functionally with leaders and stakeholders across engineering to prioritize and deliver a shared roadmap.
- ✓Strong understanding of simulation, testing, or validation systems for complex, safety-critical software.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Bonus
Qualifications
- ✓Experience managing teams that combine traditional software engineering with applied ML or generative AI.
- ✓Familiarity with generative models applied to simulation or testing (e.g., traffic-infilling, scenario creation, synthetic data).
- ✓Experience building or scaling tools used broadly across a large engineering organization, such as visual editors and agentic authoring tools.
- ✓Background in autonomous vehicles, robotics, or another safety-critical, sensor-driven domain.
Track record of leading high-visibility initiatives with executive stakeholders.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Our Simulation team builds the tools that engineers across the company rely on to validate autonomous vehicle safety and performance - including 3D scenario authoring tools, generative models for realistic traffic and scenario generation, and agentic tooling that automates manual simulation workflows. The team combines traditional software engineering with machine learning engineers, and the simulation coverage they deliver directly determines how many miles, scenarios, and edge cases we can validate before each autonomy release.
We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead a team of software and ML engineers building the scenario authoring tools, generative models, and agentic tooling that engineering relies on broadly to validate autonomous vehicle safety and performance. You'll own the team's technical direction - including its ongoing shift toward generative AI - while growing and developing the team, and you'll partner cross-functionally to scale our generative scenario creation capabilities as a company-wide capability with executive visibility.