2024 Intern, PhD, Research Scientist (Machine Learning)

Key Skills

AI Robotic systems, Deep Learning, GANs, JAX framework, Machine learning techniques, Python Programming, TensorFlow

Job Description

The mission of the Waymo Research 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. Research areas that we are currently focusing on include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation.

Waymo interns work alongside leaders in the industry on projects that deliver significant impact to the company. We believe learning is a two-way street: leveraging 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!

In this role, you’ll:

• Work with a creative team of people who are responsible for ensuring that the behavior of our cars is safe, smooth, and predictable to other road users, which includes gracefully handling many complex situations involving social aspects (merging, negotiating narrow roads, etc), while dealing with noisy, uncertain, and incomplete information.
• Frame the open-ended real-world problems into well-defined ML problems; develop and apply cutting-edge ML approaches (deep learning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, etc) to these problems; scale them to Google-sized data pipelines; and streamline them to run in real-time on the cars.
• Collaborate with other teams, including the ML infrastructure, simulation and systems engineering teams, as well as Google Brain, DeepMind and academia.
• Get an opportunity to publish findings in academic conferences and journals

At a minimum we’d like you to have:

• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science, Robotics, similar technical field of study
• Experience solving problems using Machine Learning with Tensorflow, JAX or equivalent tools
• Ability to collaborate within and across teams
• Strong experience programming in Python with robust and efficient code

It’s preferred if you have:

• Experience specifically with applying Machine Learning to solve sensor simulation problems
• Experience with Neural Scene Reconstruction and Generative Models (e.g. GAN, VAE, Diffusion Models, etc.)

The expected base salary for this full-time position is listed below. The salary will be prorated based on the number of weeks you are employed as an intern. Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company’s generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.

PhD Pay

$125,000—$125,000 USD

While at Waymo, you will enjoy benefits that cover…

Health and wellness: Our people are at the heart of everything we do. At Waymo, you can enjoy top-notch medical, dental and vision insurance, mental wellness support, a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), a Health Saving Account (HSA), on-site physicians and/or nurses in some locations, and special wellness programs.

Financial wellness: Your financial peace of mind is important to us. At Waymo, we offer competitive compensation, bonus opportunities, equity, a generous 401(k) plan or regional retirement plans, 1-on-1 financial coaching, a 529 College Savings Plan and lots of other perks and employee discounts.