Manager, RL Algorithms & Decoder (Autonomous Vehicles)

TL;DR

Manager, RL Algorithms & Decoder (Autonomous Vehicles): Leading a team of engineers to develop and execute the strategy for onboard behavior ML models for autonomous driving plans with an accent on reinforcement learning and large-scale training. Focus on setting technical direction, mentoring individual contributors, and collaborating with partner teams to optimize model performance and inference efficiency.

Location: Foster City, CA (Hybrid)

Company

Zoox is an autonomous vehicle company developing fully autonomous, electric, purpose-built vehicles for ride-hailing.

What you will do

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of individual contributors while fostering a culture of innovation.
• Develop and organize the overall strategy for onboard behavior ML models for autonomous driving plans.
• Set short and long-term technical direction for the team and collaborate on company-wide initiatives.
• Provide technical leadership in the design and development of large-scale training models.
• Collaborate with partner teams to ensure efficient model inference.
• Establish and monitor KPIs to measure effectiveness and drive continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Expertise in reinforcement learning and machine learning applied to planning, LLMs, VLAs/VLMs, or recommendation systems.
• Extensive experience with programming, algorithm design, and strong mathematics skills.
• MS or PhD degree in computer science or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience with production machine learning pipelines.
• 3+ years of experience in a leadership or management role.

Nice to have

• Conference or journal publications in machine learning or robotics venues.
• Prior experience working with autonomous vehicles or robotics.
• Experience with diffusion models and large-scale training.