Zoox · Engineering · Staff+ · Posted 2026-09-22
Senior/Staff Closures Engineer
Zoox · Foster City, CA · $195k–256k base
This range's midpoint is above 50% of posted engineering ranges at AI companies right now. See the salary index.
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About the Role Tell potential applicants about the team’s core values. This will help ensure candidates who share Zoox’s values apply. Highlight the broader impact of the team and Zoox. Quality applicants are drawn to work that is meaningful. How will a candidate be contributing and making a difference? Communicate that there are opportunities for learning and growth. Great candidates seek out companies that support growth and learning.
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Together with the team, you will define the driving experience of the robot by engineering application software responsible for decision making, trajectory planning, and controls. We are looking for an engineer who is excited to traverse the autonomous driving compute stack, loves to learn new things, and likes to take ownership of major software components. If you like to work close to the robot platform and enjoy experiencing your developed software in the robot, we would like to hear from you.
TAGS - Data Science - Communications - Design and Product - Operations - Finance - Procurement - Hardware Engineering - Product Security - Human Resources - Program Management - Information Technology - Quality - Legal and Policy - Software Engineering - Manufacturing Operations - Supply Chain - Systems and Safety
In this role, you will:
Serve as the technical owner and subject matter expert for the complete closures system. Understand how every component interfaces within the system and with the rest of the vehicle, and anticipate interdependencies between closures and adjacent complex systems before they become integration failures.
Set and defend the closures architecture across current and future vehicle programs - mechanism topology, load paths, sealing and water-management strategy, actuation and state-detection strategy, tolerance and dimensional strategy, and the hardware/firmware boundary - making the trade-offs explicit in cost, mass, timing, reliability, serviceability, and manufacturability.
Own the closures requirements set and its rationale, and improve the flow of testing from component through subsystem to full-vehicle level so the DV plan retires the risks the architecture creates. Create the design processes and standards that outlive any single program - kinematic synthesis, system dynamic modeling, DFM, and mechanism design.
Personally own the design of critical closures components and mechanisms - latches, hinges, actuators, seals, glazing interfaces, or equivalent - through concept, DFMEA, sourcing, tooling, PPAP, validation, and launch, including releasing and maintaining your own production-quality CAD and drawings with GD&T.
Size and check your own designs using section-capacity and inertia calculations, SimSolid (or equivalent) FEA pre-processing, and Python/MATLAB mechanism and mechatronic modeling. Independently lead root cause analysis on substantial, ambiguous hardware problems and drive the fix to closure through design, process, or firmware.
Influence decisions at executive leadership levels, mentor engineers new to closures and to Zoox, initiate and lead projects across functions, and act as the technical point of contact for current and prospective closures suppliers across multiple commodity domains.
Qualifications
BS in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field.
10+ years of professional experience in mechanical engi …
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