2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Perception Systems Engineering: Pedestrian Detection Precision

Waymo LLC; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 97,000 - 138,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Intern benefits

Job summary

Waymo LLC in San Francisco is seeking a PhD candidate for a technical internship focused on perception model requirements and evaluation. You will work with data from logs and tests to validate detection targets and improve headroom for the Perception teams.

This role emphasizes software engineering fundamentals, systems engineering practice, and collaboration with scientists to advance autonomous vehicle technologies. Interns participate in Waymo's generous benefits programs.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering, Physics, CS, or a related technical field.
• Strong foundation in software engineering fundamentals.
• Familiarity with systems engineering and the flow from requirements to tests.

Responsibilities

• Define and author requirements and verification items for detection models used by the Waymo vehicle.
• Collect and analyze data from logs and tests to validate requirements and identify false positives.
• Run evaluations and triage results to track performance and release changes.
• Use the evaluation framework to highlight headroom and assist the Perception team.

Skills

Software engineering fundamentals

Systems engineering principles

Data analysis

Education

PhD candidate

Tools

SQL

Python

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:

• Determine and author requirements and verification items for detection models that cover pedestrians near the Waymo vehicle.
• Collect and analyze data from existing logs and/or structured tests to test these requirements and identify false-positive clusters.
• Run evaluations and triage results to track performance and identify release-over-release changes.
• Leverage the evaluation framework you build to highlight areas with headroom and help the Perception teams hillclimb.

You have:

• Currently pursuing a PhD in a technical field, such as Engineering, Physics, CS, etc.
• Software engineering fundamentals
• Familiarity with systems engineering, particularly the logical flow of requirements to tests

We prefer:

• Experience handling large data sets/queries (e.g., SQL, Python) and/or automating test flows
• Understanding of the fundamentals of an autonomous vehicle stack, including the data pipeline from sensors to Perception
• Existing knowledge/skills/experience related to the autonomous vehicle industry or other similar forms of automation

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