Contract Student Worker - Machine Learning Engineer - Data Mining & VLM (Full-time)
At a glance
Junior Machine Learning Engineering role at Zoox. Foster City · contract.
Pay not stated Machine Learning Engineering salary
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and refine data miners that surface possible road-rule violations while meeting SSO requirements
- Create VLM and LLM workflows to classify road-rule events from simulation and fleet data
- Prepare reference datasets and compare model triage results with human assessments
- Review errors in triage results and use them to improve the pipelines
What you bring
- You are enrolled in a relevant bachelor’s or master’s program and have studied machine learning, computer vision or NLP
- You can work with Python, PySpark and SQL, and understand model evaluation, supervised learning, dataset bias and label noise
- You have built production LLM or VLM applications, using approaches such as RAG, tool calling or model evaluation
- You bring experience assessing multimodal or vision-language models and applying software practices such as Git and testing
Who this fits
This contract role suits a student seeking ongoing, hands-on engineering work alongside their studies, rather than a cohort-based internship. You must be available for at least three months, work at least forty hours weekly, and work on-site at an office location. Zoox confidentiality rules restrict sharing company information in academic work or presentations.
From the employer
About Zoox
Zoox is an autonomous ridehailing company building the world's first purpose-built robotaxi — fully electric, bidirectional, with no steering wheel or driver's seat. Backed by Amazon and founded to make transportation safer, cleaner, and more accessible, Zoox designs its vehicles entirely around the rider. We're currently operating in Las Vegas and San Francisco, with Austin and Miami on the horizon, and testing underway across seven U.S. markets.
About Our Part-Time Student Worker Program
Zoox's part-time student worker program puts you at the center of one of the most ambitious challenges in transportation. You'll contribute to real projects, work alongside engineers and researchers pushing the boundaries of autonomous technology, and gain experience that goes well beyond the classroom. We're looking for students who bring strong academic foundations, curiosity that doesn't stop at coursework, and a drive to be part of something that matters.
Role Overview
Support Zoox's Rules of the Road (RotR) program, where a miner + LLM/VLM tooling method automatically mines and triages potential road-rule violation events from simulation and fleet data. The student will be helping create or improve the data miners that generate the candidate events, help develop and evaluate the VLM triagers — curating golden datasets, measuring precision/recall against expert triage, and extending automation to new regulations and data sources.
Responsibilities
- Develop and iterate data miners locating potential RotR Violations following SSO requirements
- Develop and iterate on VLM/LLM workflows and pipelines for classifying RotR events
- Curate golden datasets and evaluate triager precision/recall against human triage
Required Qualifications
- Extend triagers from simulation to fleet/service data
- Strong Python / Pyspark / SQL skills
- Coursework in machine learning, computer vision, or NLP. Understanding of supervised learning, model evaluation, and common sources of dataset bias and label noise.
- Analyze error cases and translate findings into pipeline improvements
- Hands-on experience building production LLM/VLM applications, including agentic workflows, RAG, tool calling, evaluation, and/or fine-tuning.
- Familiarity with software-engineering practices such as Git, unit testing, debugging, and code reviews.
Bonus Qualifications
- Strong Scala skills.
- Experience with Spark optimization and distributed data-processing systems.
- Experience with autonomous vehicles, robotics, mapping, or transportation-related datasets.
Program Requirements
- Experience evaluating multimodal or vision-language models.
- Currently enrolled in a B.S. or M.S. program in a relevant discipline.
- Experience with prompt optimization, model fine-tuning, or human-in-the-loop ML systems.
- Available to commit to a minimum three-month assignment.
- Able to commit a minimum of 40 hours per week.
- Able to work on-site at one of our office locations.
- Must adhere with Zoox confidentiality requirements, including refraining from using or sharing proprietary company information outside of Zoox, such as in academic research, theses, publications, or presentations.
About ZooxZoox is developing the first ground-up, fully autonomous vehicle fleet and the supporting ecosystem required to bring this technology to market. Sitting at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and design, Zoox aims to provide the next generation of mobility-as-a-service in urban environments. We’re looking for top talent that shares our passion and wants to be part of a fast-moving and highly execution-oriented team.
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AccommodationsIf you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process please reach out to accommodations@zoox.com or your assigned recruiter.
A Final Note:You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position. Here at Zoox, we know that diverse perspectives foster the innovation we need to be successful, and we are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.