Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Predictive Planner, Systems Arch
About this role
The Predictive Planning team at Waymo builds machine learning solutions that forecast future environmental states and dictate the behavior of the autonomous driving system. Engineers in this position focus on transforming large-scale driving data into robust deep neural networks while designing the onboard system architecture, kinematics, and model interfaces. Success here requires a pragmatic background in machine learning modeling, production deployment, and cross-functional engineering to help autonomous vehicles navigate complex real-world environments safely.
What you will do
- Tackle challenging real-world problems using machine learning and engineering solutions.
- Design and build machine learning models using state-of-the-art techniques and deploy them on production vehicles.
- Develop necessary architectures, algorithms, pipelines, and evaluation systems on Google's data infrastructure.
- Collaborate with researchers, product area owners, and engineers to create safe and smooth planning behavior.
What you need
- Hold a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, a similar technical field, or possess equivalent practical experience.
- Demonstrate hands-on experience with modern deep learning libraries such as TensorFlow, JAX, or PyTorch.
- Possess proficient programming skills in languages like Python, C, or C++.
- Bring strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities to technical challenges.
- Have four or more years of professional experience in machine learning modeling and autonomous vehicle systems.
Nice to have
- Master's degree 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 machine learning research industry experience
- General software engineering experience solving motion planning or related robotics problems
- Experience applying or evaluating ML-based systems in production environments and performing hardware optimization
Benefits
- Discretionary annual bonus program
- Equity incentive plan
- Generous company benefits program
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the expected salary range for this role?
The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is $213,000 to $263,000 USD. Actual starting pay is based on job-related factors such as exact work location, experience, relevant training, education, and skill level.
Who will I report to in this position?
In this role, you will report directly to a Technical Lead Manager. The team works collaboratively across the stack to build the best setup for the model to drive.
What additional compensation and benefits are offered?
Employees are eligible to participate in a discretionary annual bonus program and an equity incentive plan. Additionally, workers qualify for a generous company benefits program subject to eligibility requirements.