Senior Software Engineer, Perception Future Sensing Platforms

Waymo; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 213,000 - 263,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity incentive plan

Generous company benefits

Discretionary annual bonus program

Job summary

Waymo in San Francisco is looking for a software engineer to develop and maintain Perception software systems. The ideal candidate should have a strong background in C++ programming and sensor data processing.

This position follows a hybrid work schedule and involves collaboration on cutting-edge autonomous driving technology. The expected salary range is $213,000—$263,000 USD, with additional benefits and eligibility for bonuses.

Qualifications

• Strong experience programming in C++ with robust and efficient code.
• Experience with building, integrating, debugging and evaluating ML-based systems.

Responsibilities

• Work with a creative team to bring up Perception SW on new hardware platforms.
• Evolve existing SW to abstract hardware differences.
• Prototype and run de-risking experiments for next-gen Perception SW.
• Evaluate existing or new sensor hardware and write up analyses.

Skills

C++ programming

Software architecture

Sensor data processing (Lidar, camera, Radar)

ML-based systems integration

Education

BS in Computer Science, Robotics, or related field

MS or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, or related field

Job description

Company Overview

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.

Perception Team

The Perception team at Waymo builds technology that powers the Waymo Driver. Our software allows the Waymo Driver to perceive the world around it, make the right decision for every situation, and deliver people safely to their destinations. We conduct research to address real‑world problems and collaborate with research teams at Alphabet. We have access to millions of miles of driving data from a diverse set of sensors, enabling software engineers to develop multi‑modal models and techniques at scale.

Mission

Our mission is to build a stable foundation for a high‑level Perception pipeline and the overall self‑driving system. We act as the crucial interface between Waymo’s hardware teams and the rest of the self‑driving engineering organization, defining sensor requirements, providing critical feedback to hardware teams, and abstracting away system complexities.

Multi-Platform Team

The Multi-Platform Team’s purpose is to abstract away superfluous differences between various sensor hardware and encapsulate hardware‑specific logic so that downstream Perception is as portable as possible. Our work allows a single parameterized Perception software stack to run on all sensor hardware platforms, to remain easily maintainable across N platforms with much less than N times the effort, and to rapidly adapt to new platforms. We bring up the overall Perception software stack on new sensor and vehicle platforms.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and reports to a Technical Lead Manager.

You Will

• Work with a creative team of people who are responsible for the bring‑up of Perception SW on new hardware platforms (vehicles, sensors, compute)
• Evolve existing SW to abstract away superfluous differences between various sensor hardware and encapsulate hardware‑specific logic, by writing design docs, gathering feedback, implementing the change and testing it and monitoring its continued health and maintaining it during its lifespan
• Rapidly prototype and run de‑risking experiments for the next‑generation Perception SW stack that is designed to be more portable to the new sensor HW
• Maintain and run evaluations of existing or hypothetical new sensor hardware to help make decisions on sensor HW options. Write up analyses that summarize high‑level recommendations using the evidence from these evaluations

You Have

• BS in Computer Science, Robotics, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience
• Strong experience programming in C++ with robust and efficient code
• Strong software architecture skills
• Experience with sensor data processing (Lidar, camera, or Radar)
• Experience with building, integrating, debugging and evaluating ML‑based systems

We Prefer

• MS or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experienceExperience with autonomous vehicles (L4) or ADAS systems (L2/L3)
• Experience with bring‑up of new sensors or vehicle platforms

Compensation and Benefits

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: $213,000—$263,000 USD