Engineering Manager, ML Performance Optimization

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-10-06

Job description

In this role, you will:

• Vision: Develop and execute a strategic vision and roadmap for ML Training and Inference Performance Optimization, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance to support autonomous driving.

• Technical acumen: Lead the design, implementation, and operation of a robust and efficient ML platform to enable the training, validation, serving, optimization and monitoring of ML models.

• ML Performance Optimization: Drive end-to-end performance optimization for large-scale model training and inference, including distributed training efficiency, GPU utilization, memory and communication optimization, model compression (quantization, pruning, distillation), and low-latency on-vehicle inference that meets strict real-time and compute budgets.

• Hiring: Attract, hire, and inspire a diverse world-class engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence.

• Partnership: Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including ML researchers, software engineers, data engineers, and hardware engineers, to define requirements and align on architectural decisions.

• Mentorship: Enable engineers on the team to grow their careers by providing the right opportunities and clear, timely feedback.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience, including 3+ years of management experience managing engineers.
• Strong technical background in ML performance optimization, such as distributed training strategies (data, tensor, pipeline parallelism, FSDP/ZeRO), mixed-precision training, kernel-level optimization (CUDA, Triton), compiler stacks (torch.compile, XLA, TVM), quantization, and profiling/benchmarking across GPU and embedded accelerators.
• Experience building user-friendly ML Infrastructure that enabled large-scale model training and high-throughput, low-latency serving use cases.
• Experience with training frameworks like PyTorch, JAX, etc., leveraging GPUs for distributed model training.
• Experience with GPU-accelerated inference using TensorRT, Ray Serve, or similar frameworks.
• Proven track record of extensive cross-functional collaboration, partnering with research, product, hardware, and platform teams to align priorities, influence technical direction, and deliver measurable performance improvements across organizational boundaries.

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI All jobs at Zoox Jobs in California Jobs in Foster City, CA Foster City city guide California state guide San Mateo County economy

View this job and apply on the employer's page →

You apply on the employer's page; AtiveSite does not receive or process applications and is not affiliated with the employer. The description above is shown as the source published it.

About the role

This is a — role in the Technology field (Data, analytics and AI) at Zoox.

We could not match this job title to one occupation in the official wage statistics, so no pay estimate is shown. Pay is not in the source listing; ask the employer for the range and compare in the 240 job niches.

Does the pay work here? (estimate)

How to prepare and behave

This is editorial guidance, not information from the employer.

• Read the whole description and match your examples to its requirements; use the same words the posting uses where they are true for you.
• Research the employer before the interview: what it does, who its customers are and recent news; prepare two or three questions about the work.
• Arrive early (or log in early for a video call), dress one step above the daily dress code, and test your camera and audio beforehand.
• Answer with short stories: the situation, what you did and the result. Give numbers when you have them and never invent them.
• Be honest about gaps; say what you did to learn and how fast you can close them.
• Ask about the team, the first 90 days, how success is measured and the schedule; do not open with salary and time off.
• When pay comes up, know the market range for the occupation and your lowest acceptable offer before you answer; ask for the full package in writing.
• Send a short thank-you message within a day, mentioning one thing you discussed.
• Have code, data work or projects you can show, and be ready to think aloud: many technical interviews test how you reason, not only the answer.

Know your rights as a candidate and an employee:

• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: prohibited employment practices
• U.S. Department of Labor: Wage and Hour Division
• CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor): job search help, interview tips and resumes
• USA.gov: avoiding job scams

The city

The job is in Foster City, CA. Below is what the official statistics say about living and working there.

How Foster City compares. Among the 145 largest places in California, Foster City is #131 by population, #140 for rent (#1 = cheapest), #10 for college degrees (#1 = most), #10 for remote work (#1 = most). Its county, San Mateo County, is #2 of 58 counties for average pay ($196,441).

The place in numbers

Foster City has 32,792 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 0.1% of the population of California. It covers 4 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 8,659 people per square mile. The median age is 39.5, 4% older than the state median (39.5 against 37.9).

Housing

The median gross rent is $3,501 a month (rent plus utilities), 72% above the state median ($3,501 against $2,036). Over a year that is 21.1% of the median household income. US housing guidance treats housing as affordable when it takes 30% of income or less, so the typical household is under that line. The median home value is $1,838,200, which is 9.2 times the median household income ($199,143); a ratio above 5 usually means buying is out of reach without savings or a second income. 50.8% of households own their home, 9% below the state average (50.8% against 55.9%).

Work and pay

The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metropolitan area has 2,373,920 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $74,260 a year, 46% above the national median ($74,260 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are office and administrative support (226,320 jobs, median $62,120); management (223,100 jobs, median $176,340); business and financial operations (207,030 jobs, median $112,960). The area is most specialised in computer and mathematical (1.9 times) and life, physical, and social science (1.8 times), where the share of workers is well above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($176,340) and computer and mathematical ($167,770). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of San Mateo County was 3.9%. 67.2% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in San Mateo County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.

Getting around

Among workers, 51.8% drive alone, 2.9% use public transit, 1.7% walk, 34.2% work from home. 20.6% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 6% above the state average (20.6% against 19.4%). Remote work is more common than in the state as a whole, which widens the set of employers a resident can work for without moving.

People and education

73.8% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 99% above the state share (73.8% against 37.1%). 49.5% of residents were born outside the United States, 83% above the state share (49.5% against 27.0%). The poverty rate is 4.1%, 66% below the state rate (4.1% against 12.0%).

Climate

The warmest month is Sep, averaging 61°F (16.0°C), and the coolest is Jan at 51°F (10.7°C). About 515 mm (20 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; Dec is the wettest month (115 mm) and Jul the driest (2 mm). These values come from NASA satellite-based climatology on a grid of about 50 km, so they describe the wider area, not a weather station in the city.

Nearby cities to compare

Closest cities in this guide: San Mateo (3 miles, rent 12% lower); Redwood City (4 miles, rent 15% lower); Belmont (4 miles, rent 18% lower); San Carlos (5 miles, rent 18% lower). Rent differences are against Foster City; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.

Full guide to Foster City →California guideAll jobs in Foster City

Official links for Foster City

• Official website of Foster City: fostercity.org
• Census Bureau data profile for Foster City
• Official website of San Mateo County: smcgov.org
• Official state website: ca.gov
• BLS Economy at a Glance: California

These links go to official sources and open in a new window. The first one is the government's or company's own site as listed in Wikidata (property "official website"); check it before relying on it.

Where to live

The job city has no coordinates we can place on the map, so no housing comparison is shown. Use the 250 largest cities table to compare rent and income.

Career paths

We could not match this title to one occupation, so here are the other sub-niches in Technology, where your skills may carry over:

Cybersecurity (762) Software engineering (4641) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (1147) Product management (927)

Distances

This job has no single city we can place on the map (remote, flexible or unmatched location), so no distance table is shown. Browse all Technology jobs with distances from any of the 20 largest cities.

The employer

Zoox is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

We do not hold headcount or revenue for this employer. Check its careers site and, if it is listed on a stock exchange, its public filings (SEC EDGAR search).

What it is like to work at a company (culture, schedules, benefits) is not in the source data, so we do not describe it. Read the description and ask the questions under "How to prepare".

Other open jobs at Zoox

Similar jobs

Same sub-niche: Data, analytics and AI

More jobs in Foster City, CA

All Data, analytics and AI jobs → · All Technology sub-niches →

FAQ

What is the Engineering Manager, ML Performance Optimization job at Zoox?

A private-sector role in technology (data, analytics and ai) listed 34 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

Foster City, CA.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

Median rent in Foster City is $3,501 a month and median household income $199,143 (ACS 2020–2024).

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-10-06 (34 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse data, analytics and ai jobs in California.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Zoox careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-10-06). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

AtiveSite is not affiliated with or endorsed by the employer or any government agency, and does not process applications. Verify every detail with the employer before acting.

Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)