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2025 Summer Intern, PhD, Research - Preference Learning

Mountain View, California, United States Intern Research 3185

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2025 Summer Intern, PhD, Research - Preference Learning

  • 3185
  • On Site
  • Mountain View, California, United States
  • Research
  • Intern
  • Intern

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the 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 One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over one million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 13+ U.S. states.

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!

 

You will:

  • Implement post-training algorithms like preference learning, RLHF, supervised fine-tuning, etc
  • Curate training datasets across label sources
  • Run training experiments on Waymo’s planning models
  • Evaluate the performance of planning models

 

You have:

  • Currently enrolled in a PhD program in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, physics, or a related technical field of study
  • Basic software programming or scripting skills (Python, C/C++)
  • Experience with machine learning, deep learning, Foundational Models and/or LLMs
  • Familiar with one of the modern deep learning frameworks (e.g. Pytorch, JAX, Tensorflow)

 

We prefer:

  • Experience with training and evaluating LLMs and/or robotics models
  • Publications from top peer-reviewed conferences (eg: CoRL, CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, Neurips, ICLR)

 

Note: This will be a hybrid onsite internship position. We will accept resumes on a rolling basis until the role is filled. To be in consideration for multiple roles, you will need to apply to each one individually - please apply to the top 3 roles you are interested in.

#LI-Hybrid

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
$60.10—$60.10 USD

We appreciate your interest in Waymo. Waymo is an equal employment opportunity employer, committed to maintaining a supportive and inclusive workplace for all employees. Waymo does not discriminate against, and prohibits harassment of, any applicant or employee based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, age, disability, military status, genetic information or any other basis protected by applicable law. Waymo will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal records in accordance with applicable law. Waymo is committed to ensuring equal opportunity for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and require an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please let the recruiting team know or email waymo-candidatesupport@google.com. (This email address is intended to be used only for requesting accommodations as part of the application process. Other inquiries will not receive a response.)

Some of our Benefits

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, gym membership, and special wellness programs.

Financial wellness

Your financial peace of mind is important to us. At Waymo, we offer competitive compensation, bonus opportunities, equity, employees provident fund, and lots of other perks and employee discounts.

Flexibility and time off

Take the time you need to relax and recharge. Enjoy the flexibility to work from another location for four weeks per year. We support an on-site or hybrid work model and offer remote working opportunities, paid time off, bereavement, sick, and parental leave. 

Supporting families

When it comes to growing your family or caring for your loved ones, you have our full support. Enhanced leave options include 26 weeks of paid leave for birthing parents and 18 weeks of paid leave for non-birthing parents.

Community and personal development

At Waymo, you'll find a range of opportunities to grow, connect, and give back. We offer education reimbursement, personal and professional development, mentorship, and other ways to connect through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), other internal groups, and even time off to volunteer.

Cool perks

Access to Google offices, cafes, wellness centers, massages, and so much more. To support your wellbeing at home, you can enjoy at-home fitness and cooking classes, and more.

Ready to Apply?

 

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Demographic Information (completion voluntary)

Waymo would greatly appreciate it if you could provide us with your identity information. Your individual identity data will not be accessible to recruiters, hiring managers or others who interview you. Instead, it is used in aggregate to track and report Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (EID) progress. Answering these questions is entirely voluntary, and a decision not to answer will not be held against you. 

If you decide to provide demographic information, it will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file. Whatever your decision about providing this data, it will not be considered in the hiring process or as a basis for employment decisions. If you are offered and accept employment with Waymo, the information collected during the application and recruitment process will become part of your confidential employment record.

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