# Senior/Staff Systems Engineer, Fail Operational

**Company:** [Zoox](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/zoox)
**Location:** Foster City, CA
**Role:** Other
**Salary:** $185k – $291k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Python, Systems Engineering, Data Analysis, Probability, Statistics, Fault Management, Risk Quantification, Stpa, Fta, Fmea, Fha, Iso 26262, Iso 21448
**Posted:** 2026-06-24

> Lead the evolution of Zoox's Fail Operational metric framework, driving target-setting, classification, and cross-functional risk mitigation for autonomous driving performance. Requires 5+ years in systems engineering or safety-critical systems with Python and quantitative metrics experience.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own and evolve the core Fail Operational metric framework for quantifying, severity-ranking, and systematically driving down autonomous-mission stoppage and degradation events, including category definitions, classification methodology, and triage criteria used to identify and assess mission-critical events across all driving behavior domains
- Lead Fail Operational metric target-setting for new and existing milestones, authoring supporting documentation and consolidating inputs across metric categories to assess overall readiness for milestone closure
- Drive the evolution of the Fail Operational metric architecture, ensuring alignment with current priorities and operational needs
- Develop process for reviewing observed events, mapping to seen failure modes or confirming as new, and integrating those observations into estimations to drive business priorities
- Partner cross-functionally with Software, Hardware, and Operations teams to escalate issues, identify mitigations, evaluate emerging risks from testing pipelines, and support delivery of features that improve performance metrics
- Communicate complex metric concepts, data analyses, and actionable insights to diverse stakeholders and executives, translating technical findings into clear recommendations that inform decision-making

## Requirements
- B.S. or higher degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field
- 5+ years of relevant professional experience in systems engineering, data analysis, performance tracking, risk quantification, or fault management for complex and safety-critical systems
- Demonstrated experience defining, implementing, and managing quantitative metrics and data-driven frameworks, with proficiency in probability, statistics, and Python for large-scale data analysis
- Strong understanding of fault detection, categorization, and severity assessment methodologies, with experience developing technical frameworks, taxonomies, or classification systems
- Excellent technical communication and documentation abilities, with a collaborative approach to influencing, driving consensus, and leading cross-functional initiatives

## Nice-to-Haves
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
- Systems engineering or system safety experience with autonomous driving, robotics, or fleet-scale vehicle operations
- Experience with fail-operational design, fault tolerance, or fault management in safety-critical domains, including familiarity with hazard analysis methods such as STPA, FTA, FMEA, or FHA
- Metrics ownership experience and knowledge of industry safety standards such as ISO 26262, ISO 21448, MIL-STD-882
- Experience building processes from conception to implementation at scale

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