Research Scientist, Map Scalability
About this role
Engineers who thrive on tackling fundamental machine learning challenges in autonomous driving will find a strong fit within the Waymo AI Foundations team. This group develops core machine learning solutions designed to help autonomous vehicles safely navigate dozens of cities under varied conditions, building upon over 100 million driven miles and billions of simulation miles.
In this role, the incoming scientist will tackle research problems tied to world understanding utilizing vision-language models, generative modeling, and large-scale 3D reconstruction. Responsibilities include prototyping ideas with internal driving data, scaling solutions alongside engineering teams, and sharing findings internally or externally within the research community.
The compensation for this position ranges from $213,000 to $263,000 USD in base salary, supplemented by a discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and company benefits. Candidates can be based in Mountain View, San Francisco, or New York City.
What you will do
- Solve fundamental and applied research problems related to world understanding using VLMs, generative modeling, and 3D reconstruction at large scale.
- Prototype and iterate on various research ideas using internal driving data provided by the company.
- Scale and productionize world understanding solutions in close collaboration with engineering teams across the organization.
- Present research findings to a wide audience within the company and Alphabet.
- Share results with the broader research community through potential publications.
What you need
- Hold a Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, or a similar discipline.
- Bring one to three or more years of experience in a related field.
- Demonstrate expertise in either foundational VLMs, computer vision, or learning-based 3D reconstruction methods such as 3DGS or NeRF.
- Possess strong machine learning software engineering skills in Python and C++ with the ability to rapidly prototype solutions.
- Maintain familiarity with major machine learning frameworks including JAX, TensorFlow, and PyTorch.
Nice to have
- Publications at top-tier conferences like CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, IROS, or CoRL
- Hands-on experience productionizing and scaling machine learning solutions beyond the research stage
- Fundamentals in 3D vision and computer graphics
- Domain experience in the autonomous vehicle or simulation space
Benefits
- Discretionary annual bonus program
- Equity incentive plan
- Generous company benefits program
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What locations are available for this role?
This full-time position is based in Mountain View, CA, San Francisco, CA, or New York City, NY. Actual starting pay is based on job-related factors including the exact work location.
What is the salary range for the position?
The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is $213,000 to $263,000 USD. Actual starting pay depends on job-related factors such as experience, relevant training, education, skill level, and exact work location.
What additional compensation and benefits are included?
Employees are eligible to participate in a discretionary annual bonus program, an equity incentive plan, and a generous company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.
What focus areas does the AI Foundations team work on?
Current focus areas include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation. The team also initiates and fosters collaborations with other research teams across Alphabet.