Sr. Staff Software Engineer, DUE Experience

5091
On Site

Los Angeles, California
Mountain View, California
San Francisco, California
New York City, New York

Software Engineering

Full-Time

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 Driver Understanding and Evaluation (DUE) team at Waymo is developing rich metrics for understanding the behavior of the Waymo Driver in the real world, and technologies such as context and scene analysis to understand driving, understanding and augmenting real world driving data to generate rare driving events, build large scale data infrastructure, improve components such as agents and a realistic simulator. These technologies come together to drive the overall technical strategy and methodology used to evaluate the behavior of the Waymo Driver.

In this hybrid role, you will report to the Engineering Manager.

You will:

Define and drive the technical vision and architectural strategy for autonomous, multi-agent systems within the DUE Experience team, focusing on transformative improvements in event triage.
Lead the exploration and application of state-of-the-art agentic technologies to automate complex triage workflows, shifting paradigms from static LLM generation to dynamic reasoning, planning, and execution.
Architect, design, and guide the implementation of scalable, robust agentic frameworks capable of dynamic tool use, self-reflection, and multi-step orchestration.
Collaborate across teams to identify opportunities where agentic workflows and specialized AI agents can autonomously navigate and impact the broader Waymo Driver evaluation lifecycle.
Mentor and provide technical guidance to engineers within DUE Experience and partner teams, fostering innovation and engineering excellence in agentic design patterns.
Identify and advocate for the broad problem(s) worth solving, turning big-picture concepts into actionable projects and roadmaps for human-on-the-loop autonomous systems.

You have:

Extensive experience (typically 10+ years) in software engineering, with a significant focus on architecting and building large-scale, complex systems.
Deep expertise in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, with heavy, hands-on experience building autonomous agents, multi-agent orchestration systems, and integrating LLMs with external tools/APIs.
Proven ability to define technical strategy, influence senior leadership, and drive execution across multiple teams in ambiguous and rapidly evolving domains.
A strong track record of technical leadership, including designing and implementing novel agent-based solutions.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

We prefer:

PhD in Computer Science or a related field, with a specialization in AI/ML or a related area.
Experience with agentic frameworks, knowledge graphs, and reasoning engines.
Familiarity with autonomous vehicle simulation, testing, or evaluation domains.
Proficiency in C++ and experience with building production-grade services.
Experience working with large-scale data processing and distributed systems.
Familiarity with Google's or Waymo's internal AI/ML platforms and infrastructure.

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

$298,000—$368,000 USD

We appreciate your interest in Waymo. Waymo is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating a culture of belonging and maintaining a supportive workplace for all employees. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, and employment decisions are based on a candidate’s qualifications, experience, and alignment with job requirements and business needs. 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, family status, pregnancy, 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 making sure our hiring process is accessible for all candidates. If you need assistance applying for a role or participating in the interview process due to a disability, 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.