Senior Manager/Director, Cartography

The role

You will lead and grow several cartography teams, including managers, senior cartographers, and contractor or vendor mapping teams. You will own HD map creation, annotation and maintenance for new operational design domains, and set quality and release standards with Safety and Autonomy.

What you will do

• Lead and grow multiple cartography teams, including managers, senior cartographers, and contractor/vendor mapping teams
• Own HD map creation and annotation for new ODDs, driving throughput, quality, and cost to meet launch timelines
• Own map maintenance and change detection to keep maps fresh as roads, construction and infrastructure change
• Define and enforce map QA and validation standards, quality gates, and map release processes with Safety and Autonomy
• Set a unified, prioritized roadmap balancing new-city expansion, map freshness, and quality improvements
• Manage vendor relationships, including onboarding, training, capacity planning, SLAs, and quality audits
• Partner with Mapping Software and ML teams on tooling and automation that improve cartographer productivity
• Establish metrics and reporting on map quality, coverage, throughput, and turnaround time, and present progress to senior leadership

Required qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in cartography, GIS, HD mapping, or a related geospatial field
• 3+ years managing managers and/or multiple teams
• Deep understanding of HD map content (lane geometry, topology, traffic controls, semantics) and annotation workflows
• Experience running large-scale map production, maintenance, and QA programs
• Proven experience managing distributed teams, including contractors or external vendors
• Track record of defining process, quality metrics, and operational rigor at scale
• Strong cross-functional leadership and communication skills, including presenting to senior stakeholders

Nice to have

• HD mapping experience in autonomous vehicles or robotics
• Hands-on experience with GIS/geospatial tooling (e.g., QGIS, ArcGIS) and map formats
• Experience with ML-assisted map generation, automated change detection, or annotation automation
• Background working in a safety-critical environment

About the company

zoox is hiring for a senior cartography leadership role responsible for HD map production, quality and vendor management. The posting does not describe the company further.