Research Scientist, Perception Research

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.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and reports to a Principal Research Scientist.

• Use Multimodal LLMs to perform 3D detection
• Develop and maintain scalable data pipelines for Training & Eval to process data from multiple sources.
• Design and implement evaluation frameworks for perception models.
• Study and analyze different behaviors of this model, such as scaling efficacy, downstream quality implications, model architecture design ablations, etc.
• Design and implement Perception Modeling solutions to understand LiDAR/Camera/Radar information from autonomous vehicle sensors.
• Communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences regarding research motivations and research findings.
• Conduct cutting-edge research and potentially communicate research findings to the wider academic community via technical reports and/or publications.

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science or a similar discipline, or an equivalent amount of deep learning experience.
• 5+ years of experience with Deep Learning and Generative Models.
• Familiarity with major ML Frameworks (JAX, Tensorflow, Pytorch)
• Strong coding skills in Python.

• PhD degree in Computer Science or a similar discipline, or an equivalent amount of deep learning research experience.
• Publications at top-tier conferences like CVPR/ICCV/ECCV/ICLR/ICML/NeurIPS/IROS/CoRL etc.
• Substantial involvement in and contributions to high impact industry AI projects.
• Experience in generative models for domains such as world models, images, videos, 3D, human animation, traffic, and/or simulation, using techniques such as diffusion or autoregressive models.

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
• Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (statutory, where applicable); 5 days/event (discretionary)
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year

Salary Range: $251,000—$310,000 USD

Waymo employees are also eligible to participate in Waymo’s discretionary annual bonus program, equity incentive plan, and generous Company benefits program, subject to eligibility requirements.