The Special Vehicle Compliance team develops the multi-modal perception, semantic reasoning, and driving intelligence that enables the autonomous vehicle to safely interact with high-stakes road actors. We are actively advancing our systems toward data-driven learned policies and end-to-end architectures, powered by large-scale closed-loop data engines.
Role overview: Autonomy MLE role focused on bridging perception and planning to develop and release robust learned driving policies. The primary objective of this role is to train, evaluate, and transition production-ready decision-making models into real-world autonomous navigation systems.
In this hybrid role, you will report to the Technical Lead Manager of the Special Vehicle Compliance team.
You will:- Develop, evaluate, and release learned driving policies for complex navigation and yielding scenarios.
- Work cross-functionally at the intersection of perception and planning, translating multi-modal perception outputs into robust behavioral actions.
- Deploy learned models into closed-loop simulation environments, benchmark against strict safety metrics, and drive the transition of these models into production releases.
- Advance the transition from rule-based heuristics to scalable, data-driven learned policies.
You have:- 2-5+ years experience training and releasing ML models in autonomous driving, robotics, or complex spatial AI.
- Hands-on experience working across both perception and planning stacks. Proficiency in learned driving policies (RL / imitation learning), PyTorch / JAX, closed-loop simulator evaluation, and a track record of releasing models to production.
- Familiarity with Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and World Models is a strong plus
- Experience using foundation models and AI tools for scenario generation, evaluation analysis, and rapid experimentation.
The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.
Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo's discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.
Salary Range
$213,000-$263,000 USD
