Manager - Model Evaluation

The role

You will lead a team of data scientists, ML validation engineers and software engineers. The team evaluates and validates the machine learning models and behavioral algorithms that drive autonomous vehicle prediction and planning.

What you will do

• Lead, mentor and scale a team of data scientists, ML validation engineers and software engineers
• Define and run end-to-end validation strategies across offline evaluation, simulation and fleet benchmarking
• Set quantitative go/no-go release criteria for behavioral planner and prediction ML models
• Partner with planner, prediction, MLOps and developer efficiency teams on validation targets and pipelines
• Translate model performance trade-offs and safety risks into clear recommendations for release decisions and executive leadership

Required qualifications

• Master's or PhD in CS, Robotics, Applied Statistics or a related field
• 3+ years of direct engineering management experience leading data science, machine learning or V&V engineering teams
• 7+ years of technical experience in robotics, autonomous systems or AI/ML
• Strong background in ML model validation, behavioral evaluation frameworks and statistics
• Strong technical foundation in Python and modern data/ML platforms
• Proven ability to partner with systems software engineers and understand compute and performance trade-offs
• Track record of leading teams evaluating complex robotic systems
• Familiarity with modern C++/Python ML environments, simulation frameworks and high-throughput ML evaluation pipelines
• Demonstrated ability to balance release velocity, compute cost and safety rigor

Nice to have

• Experience with autonomous vehicles, robotics or other safety-critical systems
• Experience building large-scale simulation, model evaluation or validation infrastructure
• Experience with reinforcement learning, generative AI or distributed ML systems

Before you apply

• You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply

About the company

Zoox is developing the first ground-up, fully autonomous vehicle fleet and the supporting ecosystem to bring it to market. The company aims to provide next-generation mobility-as-a-service in urban environments.