Staff Tech Lead Software Engineer, Vehicle Realism Platform

RemoteRemoteFull TimeStaff$251,000–$310,000 /yrPosted 1 month agoVisa sponsorship available

Is this role right for you?

Upload your resume and get a skill-by-skill breakdown — see exactly where you match, where you're close, and what to highlight. Not a mystery percentage.

Get a tailored resume highlighting what this role needs.

Required skills

C++
backend
databases
SQL
production monitoring
Vehicle Realism Platform
Simulator Architecture
physics
environment
hardware models

Nice to have

release of software
systems programming
game engines
database
OS
distributed

Role summary

Waymo's Simulation Team is seeking a Staff Tech Lead Software Engineer to join the Vehicle Realism Platform (VRP) team. This role focuses on building tools and systems for realistic autonomous-driving simulation, ensuring simulated signals reflect real-world driving behavior. You will collaborate with engineers to expand simulation capabilities, monitor and improve simulator reliability, and design long-term architectures. The position requires 6+ years of software development experience with a strong background in C++ and backend knowledge including workflows, databases, SQL, debugging, and production monitoring. Preferred qualifications include experience with distributed systems, robotics, perception, performance optimization, and ML.

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.

Waymo’s Simulation Team builds technology that supports the development of the Waymo Driver. It allows the Waymo driver to be tested on millions of miles of traffic before it hits the road. Simulation is crucial to Waymo’s mission of developing the world’s most experienced driver.

The VRP (Vehicle Realism Platform) team builds tools and systems to enable realistic autonomous-driving simulation capabilities across all hardware platforms and diverse driving conditions. VRP manages the interface between the core Simulator Architecture and the physical representation of the vehicle, which includes platform expression, physics, environment, timing, and hardware models in the Simulator. We ensure that signals we get from simulation reflect real-world driving behavior. Our team empowers engineers across Waymo to safely iterate, test, and validate autonomous driving at scale, directly supporting autonomous driving software development, evaluation, and deployment worldwide .

You will:

Collaborate with onboard and research engineers to expand simulation capabilities and achieve critical Waymo milestones.

Monitor and improve the reproducibility, reliability, and usability of the Waymo simulator.

Design long-term architectures to accommodate a growing number of internal customers and product requirements.

Bridge vehicle subsystems and simulation infrastructure to enhance overall robotic realism.

Partner closely with collaborators from Simulator, Eval, Hardware, and Onboard orgs, integrating the building blocks they provide and turning them into reliable, reproducible simulation solutions.

You have:

Hands-on experience building a popular (internal or external-facing) product

Experience on backend knowledge such as workflows, databases, SQL, debugging, production monitoring, etc

6+ years experience in software development

A strong background in C++

We prefer:

Experience with the release of software in a highly distributed heterogeneous execution environment

Experience with systems programming (game engines, database, OS, distributed)

Experience with robotics or perception systems

Experience with performance optimization in complex backend and infrastructure systems

Experience with ML

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

Sample Waymo interview questions

1
Design a data ingestion system
system designmedium
2
Design a simulation-based regression detection system for code changes
system designhard
3
Longest Substring with Two Distinct Characters Find the longest substring with at most two distinct characters. Input: s = "ccaabbb" Output: 5 Explanation: The substring "aabbb" contains exactly two distinct characters and has a maximum length of 5.
codingmedium
4
Alien Dictionary Order Derive the alien dictionary order from a sorted list of alien words. Input: words = ["z","x","z"] Output: "" (Empty String) Explanation: The letter 'z' cannot come before 'x' and then suddenly after 'x', creating a cycle and making the dictionary invalid.
codingmedium
5
Palindrome After Deleting One Character Determine if a string can be a palindrome after deleting at most one character. Input: s = "abc" Output: FALSE Explanation: Deleting any single character leaves either "ab", "bc", or "ac", none of which result in a valid palindrome.
codingmedium

Get started to unlock a personalized interview prep pack for this role.

Ready to apply?

You'll be redirected to Waymo's application page.