Waymo

Staff Software Engineer, Data-Driven Behaviors

Waymo$251K — $310K *
Transportation
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in applied machine learning, including data shaping and feature engineering.
  • Strong evaluation experience with scalable workflows and metrics for ML models.
  • Proficiency in handling large-scale models and datasets with quality API design.
  • Experience addressing design problems across multiple components.
  • Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field (PhD, Masters, or Bachelors).

Responsibilities

  • Lead development of data pipelines for ML solutions in motion planning and decision-making.
  • Prototype improvements to data pipelines and refine ML model performance.
  • Integrate and deploy ML models across the fleet, ensuring end-to-end validation.
  • Collaborate with teams in perception, research, simulation, and evaluation.
  • Mentor engineers in adopting data-driven approaches for reasoning problems.

Benefits

  • Participation in Waymo's discretionary annual bonus program
  • Equity incentive plan eligibility
  • Access to a generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements
Full Job Description
The Planner Reasoning Team builds technology that has an extremely broad impact across the Waymo organization and is the team most directly responsible for the Waymo Driver's behavior. We are the software engineering team responsible for Waymo's high-level motion planning, encoding Waymo's desired driving behaviors onboard and offboard. Our mission is to build the driving logic needed to deliver a safe, excellent Waymo Driver at scale. We have wide reaching impact into both onboard and off-board system architecture, paving the way for future-looking deep-learning-based explorations. In this team, you'll have an impact on scaling our Waymo Driver's performance and maintaining and improving our excellent safety record as Waymo expands to more cities.

In this hybrid-based role, you will report to an Engineering Manager.

You will:
  • Lead and develop the data pipelines that power ML solutions for the Waymo driver's decision making and motion planning: spanning data mining from large datasets, refining labeling policies, and shaping the reward or loss functions for ML models
  • Quickly prototype ideas to improve data pipelines and conduct model finetuning
  • Integrate and deploy ML models on the fleet, conducting end-to-end validation and enabling on-field monitoring
  • Collaborate closely with partner teams such as perception, research, simulation, and evaluation
  • Mentor engineers in leading adoption of data-primary approaches for solving reasoning problems

You have:
  • Experience in applied machine learning: data shaping, feature engineering, loss/reward shaping, finetuning and model evaluation
  • Eval experience: contributing to scalable eval workflows and building metrics for ML models
  • Proficiency in dealing with large scale models and datasets. High quality API design with an eye towards eval and data-driven techniques.
  • Experience with working and solving design problems that cut across multiple components.
  • PhD, Masters or Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field.


We prefer:
  • Experience with Large Language Models (LLM), Vision Language Models (VLM), deep learning or reinforcement learning.
  • Experience in the autonomous driving domain, including areas like motion planning or perception
  • Proficiency in C++, Python, and SQL


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

$251,000-$310,000 USD

About Waymo

Waymo LLC is a self-driving technology development company. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. Waymo develops autonomous driving technology and provides ride-hailing services through its Waymo One program. The company has been testing its self-driving technology on public roads since 2009 and has logged millions of miles of autonomous driving. Waymo has partnerships with several automakers and has been working on developing autonomous trucks for use in logistics.
Learn more about Waymo
Size
2,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2009

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