Machine Learning Engineer, Simulation Realism

Waymo • Mountain View, CA

78d • $238,000 - $302,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the 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 One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over one million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 13+ U.S. states. The Simulator Team at Waymo builds state-of-the-art simulations of realistic environments for testing and training the Waymo Driver. Our team is a diverse, and collaborative group of software engineers, machine learning (ML) engineers, and data scientists. We develop industry-leading simulation solutions using advanced ML algorithms that measure and enhance the performance of the Waymo Driver. By applying machine learning, we model the real world, including realistic agents (vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists), roads, traffic control systems, and weather conditions. To increase the fidelity and steerability of our simulations, we employ the latest ML technologies such as large foundation models trained on our datasets and diffusion technology. We also invest in capable infrastructure that allows us to quickly set up and roll out multiple scenarios to rigorously test our autonomous driving systems.

Requirements

• 7+ years experience in applied Deep Learning
• 7+ years coding and design skills
• 7+ years of experience solving complex production problems using state-of-the-art ML techniques
• 7+ years of experience taking research to production
• Expertise in Data Analysis or Data Science

Nice To Haves

• PhD degree in Computer Science or a similar discipline
• Direct experience in Generative AI, including multi-modal foundation models and Diffusion models.

Responsibilities

• Be part of a world-class applied ML team dedicated to advancing ultra-realistic autonomous vehicle (AV) simulations by leveraging Generative AI technologies.
• Apply deep domain expertise in ML, especially GenAI, to push the boundaries of simulation realism and autonomous driving capabilities.
• Independently manage the entire lifecycle of product innovations, from prototyping to productization, scaling simulations and data processing systems.
• Work within a collaborative applied ML engineering team that transforms research ideas into production-ready solutions.

Benefits

• Discretionary annual bonus program
• Equity incentive plan
• Generous Company benefits program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees