Senior Research Scientist (AI Foundations Recipes)

• The mission of the Waymo AI Foundations team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of safely operating Waymo vehicles in dozens of cities and under all driving conditions

• As part of our work, we also initiate and foster collaborations with other research teams in Alphabet

• AI Foundations areas that we are currently focusing on include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation

• In this hybrid role, you will report to a Senior Staff Software Engineer

• Partner with foundation model training teams to determine optimal data mixtures, training curricula, objectives, and other design choices that shape model capabilities

• Design global-scale pipelines for dynamically updating and reusing data mixtures as our understanding of model behavior evolves and real-world datasets are continually ingested

• Develop and deploy principled data-selection algorithms (e.g. influence estimation, proxy models, gradient similarity search) to find targeted subsets of data for fine tuning and RL

• Run large-scale empirical studies linking pre-training data composition to downstream post-training performance, translating those scaling laws into optimized production training runs

• Collaborate closely with behavior, perception, and evaluation teams to test these foundation models and measure their impact on the performance of the Waymo Driver

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents
• Employee assistance programs focused on mental health
• Personalized workplace adjustments for diverse needs and abilities, including physical, mental, and neurodivergent considerations
• Access to mental health apps
• Onsite wellness centers
• Support programs including menopause benefit
• Medical advocacy program for transgender employees
• Second medical opinion for you and your loved ones
• Counseling services
• Competitive compensation
• Regular bonus and equity performance grant opportunities
• Generous 401(k) and regional retirement plans
• Annual cross-company compensation review and pay equity analysis
• 1-on-1 financial coaching
• Fertility and growing family assistance
• Parental leave and baby bonding leave
• Survivor income benefit
• Backup childcare
• Elder care and support
• Caregiver leave
• Paid time off, including vacation, bereavement, sick leave, parental leave, disability, and holidays
• Jury duty leave
• Military leave
• Hybrid work model with remote work opportunities also available
• Educational reimbursement
• Peer learning and coaching platform
• Donation matching programs
• Volunteer hours
• Employee resource groups
• Internal community groups and local culture clubs
• Inspiring spaces to work, recharge, and collaborate with fellow Waymonauts
• On-site meals and snacks
• Fitness centers, massage programs, and ergonomic support
• On-demand fitness, wellbeing, and cooking classes
• Commuter benefits

Qualifications

• PhD in ML or related in AI/CS, or MSc with a strong academic publication record
• 3+ years of experience with modern deep learning frameworks: JAX, TensorFlow/PyTorch
• Strong statistical / ML knowledge
• Proficiency in Python
• Proven track record of deploying ML models to production environments
• Deep learning experience, especially with generative models, e.g., LLMs/VLMs, and/or reinforcement learning or imitation learning, transformer models, autoencoders and embeddings
• Autonomous driving experience
• C++ experience