2027 Summer Intern, MS/PhD, Perception, Evaluation
About this role
A candidate who enjoys applying technical knowledge to solve complex, real-world problems in autonomous systems and is keen to work at the intersection of AI and perception technology would find this internship suitable. The Perception team at Waymo is responsible for building the core system that allows the self-driving car to understand its surroundings, learning the spatial-temporal representations and semantic meanings of the environment. This work directly impacts the safety and reliability of the Waymo Driver, which powers a fully autonomous ride-hail service.
Interns on this team will engage in research and development tasks that have a significant impact on the product. Specific work involves improving large-scale perception evaluation workflows using generative AI, expanding the discovery evaluation system, and contributing to the design of frameworks for evaluating multi-task perception models. This role exists to ensure the perception models are robust, accurate, and reliable when interacting with the complex real world.
Individuals who thrive in an environment where they can apply machine learning concepts to massive datasets and collaborate with research teams at Alphabet will perform well here. This internship offers a chance to apply academic knowledge while expanding skills within a leading autonomous driving company.
What you will do
- Improve signal quality within large-scale perception evaluation workflows by utilizing generative AI, such as LLMs and VLMs.
- Expand the capabilities of the discovery evaluation system to encompass a wider variety of perception signals.
- Contribute to the design and development of frameworks and methodologies for evaluating multi-task perception models.
- Collaborate with machine learning and infrastructure engineers to integrate new signals into the end-to-end model launch evaluation process.
- Evaluate the impact of proposed improvements on evaluation quality, focusing specifically on precision, recall, and reliability.
What you need
- Proficiency in coding using Python or C++ and the ability to navigate large codebases is required.
- Demonstrated experience in building and/or evaluating machine learning models is necessary.
- Experience with data analysis and statistical evaluation techniques is essential for this role.
- Candidates must be enrolled in a Master's or PhD program in Computer Science, Robotics, or a similar technical field of study.
- A strong background in building data and evaluation pipelines and processing large-scale datasets is preferred.
Nice to have
- Multi-year C++ experience with contributions to large code bases or open source projects
- Familiarity with perception models, particularly object generation and semantics tasks
- Experience in utilizing AI-powered workflows for data analysis or model evaluation
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 location for this internship?
This internship will be based on-site at Waymo's headquarters in Mountain View, CA.
What is the compensation structure for interns?
The expected hourly rate for an intern is listed as $70 USD for a Masters program and $85 USD for a PhD program.
What is the primary technology focus of the Perception team?
The Perception team builds the system that learns the spatial-temporal representation and semantic meanings of the surrounding environment of the self-driving car.
How is the hiring process managed?
Waymo will accept resumes on a rolling basis until the role is filled. To be considered for multiple roles, candidates need to apply to each one individually.