Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Predictive Planner, Systems Arch

RemoteRemoteFull TimeSenior$213,000–$263,000 /yrPosted 1 month agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

Machine Learning
Deep Neural Networks
Autonomous Vehicles
Python
C/C++
TensorFlow
JAX
PyTorch
Systems Architecture
Kinematics

Nice to have

ICML
NeurIPS
CVPR
ICCV
ECCV
ICLR

Role summary

Waymo's Predictive Planning team is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to develop and deploy state-of-the-art ML solutions for autonomous vehicle behavior prediction and planning. This role involves designing and building deep neural networks, system architectures, algorithms, and pipelines on Google's data infrastructure. You will collaborate with researchers and engineers to ensure safe and efficient navigation in complex environments. The position requires a Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent experience, proficiency in Python/C++, modern deep learning libraries (TensorFlow, JAX, PyTorch), and 4+ years of experience in ML modeling or Autonomous Vehicle systems. Preferred qualifications include an advanced degree, publications in top-tier conferences, and prior industry experience in robotics or ML research.

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 Predictive Planning team (PrePlan) develops and deploys state-of-the-art machine learning solutions that predict the future state of the world and plan the Waymo Driver’s behavior. Our mission is to transform Waymo's unprecedented scale of driving data into robust, generalizable, and performant deep neural networks. These models enable the autonomous vehicle to navigate complex environments safely and efficiently.

The system architecture team handles the onboard contract of the model with the system, including kinematics, interfaces and representations. Our team’s mission is to work across the stack, building the best setup for the model to drive. We tackle this through projects in data, modeling, metrics, and the overall planner system.

In this role, you will report to a Technical Lead Manager.

You will:

Tackle challenging real-world problems with ML and engineering solutions.

Use state of the art techniques to design and build ML models, deploy them in the real world on production vehicles

Design and build the necessary architectures, algorithms, pipelines and evaluation systems on Google's extensive data infrastructure

Collaborate with researchers, product area owners and engineers to develop safe, smooth planning behavior for all road users & deliver product requirements.

You have:

Bachelors in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience

Hands-on experience with modern deep learning libraries (eg: TensorFlow, JAX, Pytorch)

Proficient programming skills (eg: Python, C/C++)

Strong analytical and problem solving skills

4+ years of experience in Machine Learning modeling and/or Autonomous Vehicles systems

We prefer:

MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related field

Publications in top-tier conferences such as ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR, IROS, CoRL, ACL, or EMNLP

Prior software development or ML research industry experience (including internships)

General software engineering experience solving motion planning or related robotics problems

Experience applying or evaluating ML-based systems in production environments

Experience with performance optimization of deep models, including with respect to specific hardware architectures

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$213,000—$263,000 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

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