2027 Summer Intern, MS/PhD, Conflict Behavior

Waymo; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 96,000 - 117,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits programs

Job summary

Waymo is seeking an intern to join the Systems Engineering team and contribute to ongoing safety and performance validation for the Waymo Driver. The role blends software and hardware experience in a hybrid onsite setting.

Applicants are pursuing a Master's or PhD and have strong Python/C++ skills, plus experience analyzing large datasets and applying statistical methods. The program offers generous benefits and an hourly pay structure.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Master's or PhD in a quantitative field.
• Proficiency in Python and/or C++.
• Experience analyzing, wrangling, and visualizing large-scale datasets.
• Demonstrated analytical and statistical skills for validating quantitative models.

Responsibilities

• Calibrate and validate reachability and safety-margin metrics against human evaluations.
• Analyze large-scale driving logs to evaluate model accuracy and edge cases.
• Partner cross-functionally to integrate safety signals into workflows.

Skills

Python

C++

Data analysis

Statistical skills

Machine learning

Education

MS/PhD candidate

Tools

SQL

Job description

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. Since its start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo’s fully autonomous ride-hail service and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over ten million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving over 100 million miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 15+ U.S. states.

Waymo's Systems Engineering team works together to blend software and hardware systems in groundbreaking new ways. We set the high performance standards that ensure our vehicles run smoothly and keep passengers safe, then design and perform the tests that validate that performance. We're looking for talented teammates who’ll help us maintain strong teamwork and are passionate about driving results.

Waymo interns partner with leaders in the industry on projects that create impact to the company. We believe learning is a two-way street: applying your knowledge while providing you with opportunities to expand your skill-set. Interns are an important part of our culture and our recruiting pipeline. Join us at Waymo for a fun and rewarding internship!

You will:

• Calibrate and validate physical reachability and safety-margin metrics against expert human evaluations to quantify "proactive caution" in complex scenarios
• Analyze large-scale real-world and simulated driving logs to evaluate model accuracy, characterize edge cases, and optimize trade-offs
• Partner cross-functionally to integrate quantitative safety signals into automated event triage and release-readiness workflows

You have:

• Currently pursuing an Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field
• Proficiency in Python and/or C++
• Experience analyzing, wrangling, and visualizing large-scale datasets
• Demonstrated analytical and statistical skills for validating quantitative models

We prefer:

• Familiarity with SQL
• Familiarity with autonomous vehicles, robotics, crash safety analysis, or human driving behavior modeling
• Experience working with rare-event modeling, anomaly detection, or highly imbalanced datasets in complex real-world domains (e.g., autonomous systems, robotics, experimental physics, crash safety, or healthcare)
• Solid foundation in machine learning and statistical evaluation fundamentals

Note: This will be a hybrid onsite internship position.

The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is listed below. Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company’s generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.

Hourly Masters Pay

$70—$70 USD

The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is listed below. Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company’s generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.

Hourly PhD Pay

$85—$85 USD