Senior Research Scientist, Foundation Model (LLM/VLM)

SupportFinity™; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 204,000 - 259,000; Full time

Job summary

Waymo is seeking a Senior Research Scientist for Foundation Models (LLM/VLM) to advance applied research and development across deep learning systems. The role involves designing experiments, training large models, and presenting findings to technical and leadership teams.

Hybrid role reporting to a Technical Lead Manager with opportunities to contribute to high-impact autonomous driving challenges, including post-training methods and model optimization.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in deep learning focusing on behavior, agent modeling or simulation.
• Proficiency in Python and modern DL frameworks (JAX / TensorFlow 2; PyTorch accepted).
• 3+ years of experience with modern deep learning frameworks and generative modeling / LLMs or VLMs.

Responsibilities

• Conduct applied foundation model research and development.
• Design experiments, train and evaluate large deep learning models.
• Present results to peers and leadership; write high-quality code, unit tests and documentation.

Skills

Python

DL Frameworks

Experience 3+ yrs

Education

Masters or PhD in deep learning

Job description

Senior Research Scientist, Foundation Model (LLM/VLM)

Waymo | Posted Mar 13

Full-time

Unknown

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 Applied Research team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of the 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.

In this hybrid role you will report to a Technical Lead Manager.

You Will

• Conduct applied foundation model research and development
• Design compelling experiments by training and evaluating large deep learning models
• Present results to peers and leadership
• Write high quality code, unit tests, and documentation

You Have

• Masters or PhD in deep learning in behavior and agent modeling or simulation
• Proficiency in Python
• 3+ years of experience with modern deep learning frameworks. Prefer JAX or TensorFlow 2; however, Pytorch is acceptable.
• Experience in generative modeling and LLMs or VLMs (e.g., Gemini, Llama, GPT)

We Prefer

Experience with:

• Post-training, incl. reinforcement learning
• Distillation
• Transformer models
• Autoencoders and embeddings

The expected base salary range for this full-time position across US locations is listed below. Actual starting pay will be based on job-related factors, including exact work location, experience, relevant training and education, and skill level. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the role location or, if the role can be performed remote, the specific salary range for your preferred location, during the hiring process.

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.

Salary Range

$204,000—$259,000 USD

About the company

Waymo