Company is in a cultural death spiral - Software Engineer Zoox Employee Review

2.0
31 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Outstanding food, mostly nice peers

Cons

I do not recommend interviewing here. The company is making slow and steady progress toward commercial service, but it's becoming a terrible place to work. In the few years I've worked here we've gone from "managers, your employees are really hard to replace, let's plan effectively and execute at a sustainable pace" to "employees, please don't burn yourselves out" to a new program called "weekend push" where anyone might be required to work seven days a week with little or no notice. My entire department is working 60-80hrs/wk. Close to zero equity growth. Below market compensation. Benefits are decreasing each year. No internal training or professional growth. New hires are down-leveled and long-term employees are universally under-leveled. The only way to get promoted is to throw a fit and threaten to leave at a critical time. If you're coming from outside the bay area then this might be a step up in compensation, but the best people quickly jump ship to somewhere else. This company is a career dead end.

Explore other reviews about Zoox

1.0
31 Mar 2026
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The tech is cool and there are passionate workers making it happen

Cons

Negligent management, basically asking for burn out which seems to be on par with their parent company's model. Safety? Yeah, sure I guess. Dangling, exposed wires, unsanitary bathroom conditions, and being told "you don't have to be here" when bringing up genuine concerns. We're all adults here yet they seem motivated to treat you like children in a boarding school. I know 10+ individuals with years experience in the AV space who left less than a year into being onboarded. What a waste of resources. I was flown out for training, didn't get my flight ticket until a literal hour before departure after blowing up HR and local leadership (none of which responded or checked in after the fact). Borderline illegal, heck who am I kidding, straight up illegal OSHA violations at the depots. Scheduled less than 6 hours between shifts (hello??? Do we want an incident). Also, being a contractor is a joke. You never know where you stand, managers report you to the contractor before ever telling you anything. Straight nerve racking conditions. If it means anything, I have turned down two recruiters offering twice my current salary (ouch) because it meant I'd have to work for Zoox and their horrible management again.

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