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Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.
The Perception Evaluation team at Waymo is at the forefront of autonomous driving, ensuring the safety and reliability of our self-driving technology. We develop and utilize cutting-edge tools and methodologies to rigorously assess the performance of our Perception systems, a critical component for safe and effective autonomous operation. We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer play a pivotal role in shaping the future of transportation by directly impacting the quality and reliability of Waymo's autonomous vehicles.
In this hybrid role, you will report to a Staff Technical Lead Manager.
You will:
- Lead Advanced Evaluation Framework Design: You will be responsible for the architectural design and development of innovative evaluation frameworks to thoroughly assess perception system performance, particularly in new and diverse urban environments. This includes defining technical specifications and ensuring robustness.
- Innovate with AI in Evaluation Methodologies: You will develop and implement cutting-edge evaluation methodologies and scalable pipelines. This involves leveraging advancements in large-scale AI models (including language and multimodal models) to enhance analysis, generate deeper insights, and pioneer new ways to assess performance.
- Utilize Simulation and Reference Data Systems: You will drive the use of large-scale inference and simulation systems to establish performance benchmarks, validate perception capabilities, and proactively identify potential perception challenges in a variety of scenarios.
- Drive End-to-End Platform Delivery: You will exercise complete end-to-end ownership in delivering a robust and adaptable discovery evaluation platform. This platform must be capable of supporting rapid iteration and meeting the demanding timelines associated with Waymo's city expansions, enabling proactive problem-solving.
- Integrate Evaluation with ML Development Cycles: You will collaborate closely with Machine Learning and Data Infrastructure teams. Your responsibility is to ensure that evaluation findings are seamlessly integrated into the data-driven model development loop, creating a flywheel to accelerate training, hillclimbing, and overall system improvement.
- Resolve Complex Technical Challenges: You will proactively identify, troubleshoot, and resolve complex technical hurdles within the perception evaluation domain. This involves deep technical investigation and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, actionable feedback for system enhancements, often under tight deadlines.
You have:
- 8+ years of experience designing and building complex, scalable systems
- Demonstrated technical leadership in defining long-term strategy, developing roadmaps, and guiding teams to execute projects from ambiguous requirements to high-impact deliverables
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively across diverse teams and communicate technical concepts clearly
- Deep expertise in the evaluation of Machine Learning systems at scale, encompassing metrics design, rigorous experimentation, large-scale data analysis, and statistical methods
- Hands-on experience with ML infrastructure, modern AI concepts (including foundation models or similar), and their practical application to solve real-world problems
- Proficiency in C++ and Python in a production environment
- Excellent problem-solving skills, clear technical communication, and a strong sense of end-to-end ownership
We prefer:
- Familiarity with autonomous vehicle systems, particularly Perception, including typical data pipelines and evaluation processes
- Hands-on experience with data analysis, visualization, and triage tools & workflows, with a knack for identifying improvement areas
- Experience in designing and implementing efficient data processing workflows for large datasets
- Familiarity with or experience in developing solutions using Generative AI or building AI agents
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.
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