2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Research, World Action Model

Waymo LLC; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 97,000 - 138,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits programs

Job summary

Waymo seeks a PhD candidate to advance world action models for autonomous driving. You will collaborate with research and engineering teams to improve the Waymo World Model and publish findings in top AI/ML venues.

The role emphasizes hands-on deep learning work on autonomous driving datasets, with a hybrid onsite internship structure in Mountain View, CA. Competitive hourly compensation is provided for this internship.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• Strong publication record in top-tier AI/ML or robotics conferences
• Hands-on experience training and evaluating deep learning models for autonomous driving or robotics applications
• Strong Python coding skills with expertise in modern deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow)
• Deep understanding of modern neural network architectures and learning paradigms

Responsibilities

• Research, implement, and evaluate world action models for end-to-end autonomous driving
• Collaborate with research and engineering teams to improve the Waymo World Model
• Conduct cutting-edge research and potentially communicate research findings to the wider academic community via technical reports and/or publication

Skills

Python

PyTorch

JAX

TensorFlow

Deep learning

Reinforcement learning

Education

PhD candidate in CS/Robotics/ML/EE

Tools

Diffusion models

World models

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.

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.

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:

• Research, implement, and evaluate world action models for end-to-end autonomous driving
• Collaborate with research and engineering teams to improve the Waymo World Model
• Conduct cutting-edge research and potentially communicate research findings to the wider academic community via technical reports and/or publication

You have:

• Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• Strong publication record in top-tier AI/ML or robotics conferences
• Hands-on experience training and evaluating deep learning models for autonomous driving or robotics applications
• Strong Python coding skills with expertise in modern deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow)
• Deep understanding of modern neural network architectures and learning paradigms

We prefer:

• Experience with diffusion / flow matching models
• Experience with world action models in autonomous driving or robotics applications
• Familiarity with autonomous driving datasets
• Experience with open-source foundation models

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 PhD Pay

$85—$85 USD