{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"560be7eac50ccb00a3d8756e","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/560be7eac50ccb00a3d8756e","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/560be7eac50ccb00a3d8756e","title":"Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Driver Refinement & Validation","description":"Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Driver Refinement & ValidationWaymo 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 DriverTM—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.Driver Refinement and Validation's (DRV) mission is to build upon the high-quality ML Driver developed by Driver Intelligence, refining its performance to improve autonomous driving in specific, complex real-world contexts and problem areas (e.g., Ride-Hailing contexts). It aims to ensure that the Waymo Driver always computes safe, compliant, comfortable, and useful plans. As an Engineer in DRV, you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge machine learning and real-world vehicle performance, engineering the validation and onboard systems that ensure the autonomous vehicle reliably executes intelligent and predictable maneuvers.You will:Develop next-generation, ML-powered systems that enhance the capabilities of the ML driver and accelerate the rapid scaling of Waymo's businessFine-tune, adapt, and benchmark state-of-the-art generative models to improve autonomous vehicle perception, motion prediction, and trajectory planningWrite high-quality, scalable, and thoroughly tested code to bring cutting-edge ML into productionPartner with world-class engineers and product managers to deliver safe and smooth autonomous vehicle behaviorsYou have: MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience8+ years of industry experience deploying, evaluating, and maintaining ML-based systems in real-world, production environmentsProficient programming skills in Python and/or C++, coupled with strong analytical and debugging abilitiesExpertise with modern deep learning frameworks, such as JAX or PyTorchWe prefer: Experience in deep learning, reinforcement learning, and ML systemsDomain expertise in solving prediction, behaviors, motion planning, or related robotics problemsML post-training experiencePrior industry experience (e.g. internships) in applied ML or software developmentPublications in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL, ACL, or EMNLP)The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is listed below.Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company's generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements. Hourly PhD Pay $251,000—$310,000 USD","company":"Waymo","rawCompany":"waymo","city":"Millbrae","state":"CA","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-11-09T15:23:07.900Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"},{"code":"15-1221.00","title":"Computer and Information Research Scientists","slug":"computer-and-information-research-scientists"},{"code":"17-2141.02","title":"Automotive Engineers","slug":"automotive-engineers"}],"industries":[{"code":"541715","title":"Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)","slug":"research-and-development-in-the-physical-engineering-and-life-sciences-except-nanotechnology-and-biotechnology"},{"code":"336110","title":"Automobile and Light Duty Motor Vehicle Manufacturing","slug":"automobile-and-light-duty-motor-vehicle-manufacturing"},{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Driver Refinement & Validation","description":"Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Driver Refinement & ValidationWaymo 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 DriverTM—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.Driver Refinement and Validation's (DRV) mission is to build upon the high-quality ML Driver developed by Driver Intelligence, refining its performance to improve autonomous driving in specific, complex real-world contexts and problem areas (e.g., Ride-Hailing contexts). It aims to ensure that the Waymo Driver always computes safe, compliant, comfortable, and useful plans. As an Engineer in DRV, you will bridge the gap between cutting-edge machine learning and real-world vehicle performance, engineering the validation and onboard systems that ensure the autonomous vehicle reliably executes intelligent and predictable maneuvers.You will:Develop next-generation, ML-powered systems that enhance the capabilities of the ML driver and accelerate the rapid scaling of Waymo's businessFine-tune, adapt, and benchmark state-of-the-art generative models to improve autonomous vehicle perception, motion prediction, and trajectory planningWrite high-quality, scalable, and thoroughly tested code to bring cutting-edge ML into productionPartner with world-class engineers and product managers to deliver safe and smooth autonomous vehicle behaviorsYou have: MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience8+ years of industry experience deploying, evaluating, and maintaining ML-based systems in real-world, production environmentsProficient programming skills in Python and/or C++, coupled with strong analytical and debugging abilitiesExpertise with modern deep learning frameworks, such as JAX or PyTorchWe prefer: Experience in deep learning, reinforcement learning, and ML systemsDomain expertise in solving prediction, behaviors, motion planning, or related robotics problemsML post-training experiencePrior industry experience (e.g. internships) in applied ML or software developmentPublications in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICRA, IROS, RSS, CoRL, ACL, or EMNLP)The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is listed below.Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company's generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements. Hourly PhD Pay $251,000—$310,000 USD","datePosted":"2026-11-09T15:23:07.900Z","dateModified":"2026-11-09T15:23:07.900Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Waymo","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Millbrae","addressRegion":"CA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"560be7eac50ccb00a3d8756e"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/560be7eac50ccb00a3d8756e"}}