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2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Research, AV Planning

WaymoMountain View, CA, USAPipeline (N/A)
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Salary
$85 — $85 USD
Job type
Internship
Experience
Internship
Posted
9 Oct 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

Based in Mountain View, California, the 2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Research, AV Planning position at Waymo offers a hybrid onsite internship opportunity for doctoral candidates focusing on autonomous vehicle planning. This role suits doctoral students in quantitative fields aiming to apply machine learning and reinforcement learning expertise to real-world autonomous driving systems.

Role Overview

Waymo invites doctoral candidates to join the AI Foundations team for a research internship focused on autonomous vehicle planning. The intern will work alongside industry leaders to design and implement systems utilizing language model meta-agents for reward function generation and refinement.

Key Responsibilities

Design, implement, and benchmark a system where language model meta-agents generate, synthesize, and iteratively refine reward functions for autonomous driving planning policies
Diagnose policy failure modes, reward exploitation, and multi-objective trade-offs, integrating findings back into the automated discovery loop
Collaborate with scientists and engineers to transfer validated reward formulations and tooling into planner recipes
Document research outcomes, distill key design patterns, and prepare findings for internal tech transfers and potential conference publication

Requirements

Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field
Strong hands-on experience in Reinforcement Learning and training deep learning policies with PyTorch or JAX
Demonstrated proficiency in Python and modern machine learning engineering practices
Familiarity with autonomous vehicle planning, trajectory optimization, or sequential decision-making under uncertainty

Nice to Have

Track record of peer-reviewed publications at top artificial intelligence or robotics conferences such as NeurIPS, ICRA, IROS, CoRL, ICML, ICLR, or CVPR
Experience with language model-guided code generation, automated reward discovery, or meta-reinforcement learning methods
Hands-on experience with reinforcement learning training in language models, vision-language models, or robotics
Proven ability to independently drive an exploratory research problem from ideation to implementation and results

Skills and Tools

Python
PyTorch
JAX
Reinforcement Learning
Deep Learning
Trajectory Optimization

Salary and Benefits

The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is $85 USD. Interns are also eligible to participate in the company benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.

About the Company

Waymo operates as an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to develop the Waymo Driver. Originating as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, the organization focuses on improving mobility access and traffic safety. The technology powers a fully autonomous ride-hail service across multiple vehicle platforms and product use cases, supported by billions of miles in simulation and millions of miles on public roads.

How to Apply

To apply for this role, please visit the official company careers page and submit an application on a rolling basis.

Skills and tech stack

PythonPyTorchJAXReinforcement LearningDeep LearningLLMMachine Learning

Questions candidates ask

Where is the internship located?

The position is a hybrid onsite internship based in Mountain View, CA, USA.

What is the compensation for the intern role?

The expected hourly rate is $85 USD, and interns are eligible to participate in company benefits programs based on eligibility requirements.

What educational background is required?

Candidates must currently be pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, or a related quantitative field.

What technical skills are necessary?

Applicants need strong hands-on experience in reinforcement learning, deep learning policy training using PyTorch or JAX, proficiency in Python, and familiarity with autonomous vehicle planning or sequential decision-making.

How can candidates submit their applications?

Candidates should apply directly on the official company careers page.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official Waymo careers page.

Apply on company site