Perception Machine Learning Engineer

Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USAPosted 4 weeks ago

Role Overview

Waymo is hiring a entry-level Perception Machine Learning Engineer. This is a full-time hybrid role, based in Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco. Part of Waymo's Data Science hiring. Full responsibilities, required qualifications, and the apply link are listed in the description below.

Salary Context

Salary is not disclosed in this posting. Market median for Junior-level Data Science roles is $130k-$160k (based on 24 comparable listings). Many employers share specifics during the interview process or after an initial screen.

Resume Keywords to Include

Make sure these keywords appear in your resume to improve ATS scoring

PythonPyTorchORBenefitsWaymoSinceGoogleSelf

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 Perception team builds the system which learns the spatial-temporal representation and their semantic meanings of the surrounding environment of the autonomously driving vehicle (ADV), i.e., the system that “perceives” the world around the car. We work jointly with downstream teams on the optimization and integration into the Waymo Driver. We conduct our own 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 engineers like you to (1) develop methods for efficiently and continuously learning from large scale real-world data, to (2) develop models and model training at scale, to (3) analyze real-world behavior and develop systems for handling the complexities of interacting with the real-world, and (4) optimize models for our onboard and offboard hardware.

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

You will:

Apply machine learning techniques to build multi-modal sensor fusion architectures and spatial-temporal representation learners for object detection and tracking, occupancy and semantic segmentation, road understanding, etc.
Develop scalable recipes for large data, large model training running on Alphabet’s compute infrastructure, create methods and recipes for pre-training and post-training.
Develop methods and recipes for distributed fine-tuning enabling multiple developers to simultaneously improve the model, develop methods and recipes to avoid regression against a production system.
Develop and maintain model evaluation recipes and metrics for measuring and improving performance of pre-trained and fine-tuned models

You have:

Bachelors in Computer Science or a similar discipline, or an equivalent amount of deep learning experience
3+ years experience in Machine Learning and/or Computer Vision
Experience with Python
Experience with ML frameworks like PyTorch or JAX

We prefer:

MS or PhD Degree in Machine Learning, Robotics, Computer Science or a similar discipline
Publications at top-tier conferences like CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR, ICML, ICRA, IROS, RSS, NeurIPS, AAAI, IJCV, PAMI
Experience with C++

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

$170,000—$216,000 USD

About Waymo

Waymo

waymo.com

Data ScienceHybrid

357 other open roles at Waymo on TryApplyNow.

View all 358 roles at Waymo Visit website

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply for the Perception Machine Learning Engineer position at Waymo?

Use the Apply button above to submit your application directly to Waymo. Most applications take less than 5 minutes if your resume and contact details are ready, and you'll be routed to the employer's official application system to finish.

Is the Perception Machine Learning Engineer role at Waymo remote or in-office?

This is a hybrid role based in Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco. Expect a mix of in-office and remote days, with the specific cadence set by the hiring manager.

What does a Perception Machine Learning Engineer at Waymo earn?

Waymo has not disclosed a salary range in this posting. Many employers share specifics later in the interview process; you can also ask during a recruiter screen if compensation transparency is important to you.

When was the Perception Machine Learning Engineer role at Waymo posted?

This role was posted on June 17, 2026 (34 days ago). It's still listed as actively hiring; we re-confirm openings against the source system multiple times per day and remove closed roles.

Is the Perception Machine Learning Engineer role at Waymo entry-level?

Yes. This is an entry-level position. Strong candidates typically have 0-2 years of relevant work experience, internships, or significant project work. Read the full description for any specific qualification requirements Waymo has listed.

Browse Data Science Jobs →