2027 Summer Intern, MS/PhD, Conflict Behavior
About this role
Calibrating and validating physical reachability and safety-margin metrics against expert human evaluations forms a core part of the daily work for this position. Analysts examine large-scale real-world and simulated driving logs to characterize edge cases, evaluate model accuracy, and optimize trade-offs within autonomous systems. Waymo brings together software and hardware through its Systems Engineering team to establish performance standards that maintain passenger safety. Candidates pursuing a relevant advanced degree who enjoy working with large datasets and safety-margin metrics will thrive in this collaborative environment.
Waymo operates as an autonomous driving technology company originating from the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009. The organization focuses on developing the Waymo Driver to improve mobility and reduce traffic incidents across public roads and simulation environments. This internship offers graduate students the opportunity to partner with industry leaders on projects that directly influence company initiatives and vehicle performance standards.
What you will do
- Calibrate and validate physical reachability and safety-margin metrics against expert human evaluations to quantify proactive caution in complex scenarios.
- Analyze large-scale real-world and simulated driving logs to evaluate model accuracy, characterize edge cases, and optimize trade-offs.
- Partner cross-functionally to integrate quantitative safety signals into automated event triage and release-readiness workflows.
What you need
- Candidates must be currently pursuing a Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field.
- Demonstrate proficiency in Python and/or C++ programming languages.
- Bring practical experience analyzing, wrangling, and visualizing large-scale datasets.
- Showcase demonstrated analytical and statistical skills for validating quantitative models.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with SQL
- Familiarity with autonomous vehicles, robotics, crash safety analysis, or human driving behavior modeling
- Experience working with rare-event modeling, anomaly detection, or highly imbalanced datasets in complex real-world domains
- Solid foundation in machine learning and statistical evaluation fundamentals
Benefits
- Eligible to participate in the Company's generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the work arrangement for this internship?
This will be a hybrid onsite internship position located in Mountain View, California.
What is the compensation for this role?
The expected hourly rate is $70 for Master's students and $85 for PhD students. Interns are also eligible to participate in the company's generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.
How does the application process work?
Resumes are accepted on a rolling basis until the role is filled. To be in consideration for multiple roles, candidates need to apply to each one individually and are advised to apply to their top three choices.