Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation

waymo· AI Foundations (7SJ)
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📍 Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA; Kirkland, WA, USA; New York City, NY, USA

About this role

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

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and you will report to a Senior Staff Software Engineer.

 

You will:

  • Work with a creative team of people who help to build the state-of-the-art Foundation Models that are used throughout Waymo’s systems, both onboard autonomous vehicles and offboard in simulation
  • Lead the development of end-to-end evaluation systems and benchmarks for Waymo Foundation models, encompassing the entire lifecycle from pretraining and supervised fine-tuning (SFT) to reinforcement learning (RL), for evaluating the quality, safety, and realism of embodied AI agents
  • Partner within and across organizations to land disruptive and innovative tech in production
  • Implement and extend large large scale data and evaluation pipelines

 

You have:

  • Master’s degree or PhD degree in Computer Science, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience
  • 5+ years of experience in ML engineering and applied Deep Learning, with a strong portfolio of shipped products or publication record
  • Experience with large scale distributed system
  • Proficient programming skills (eg: Python, C/C++)
  • Strong analytical and debugging skills

 

We prefer:

  • ML infra experience: training, evaluating and deploying ML models at scale
  • Deep learning experience, especially with generative models, e.g., LLMs/VLMs, and/or reinforcement learning 
  • Proficiency and in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of an ML framework (e.g. Pytorch, JAX, Tensorflow) 

 

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees. Benefits for this role include:

  • Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
  • Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
  • Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
  • Sick Time: 40 hours/year (statutory, where applicable); 5 days/event (discretionary)
  • Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
  • Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
  • Holidays: 13 paid days per year

 

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
$238,000—$302,000 USD

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the salary disclosed for the Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation position at waymo?
The salary for this Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation role at waymo is not publicly listed. Click "Apply Now" to learn more about the compensation package on their official careers page.
Where is the Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation position at waymo located?
This Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation role at waymo is based in Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA; Kirkland, WA, USA; New York City, NY, USA. The position is listed as on-site or hybrid. Check the full job description or apply directly to confirm the work arrangement.
Which team or department does the Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation at waymo belong to?
This Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation position is part of the AI Foundations (7SJ) department at waymo. See the full job description for more information about the team structure and responsibilities.
How do I apply for the Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation position at waymo?
Click the "Apply Now" button on this page. You will be redirected to waymo's official application portal hosted on greenhouse where you can submit your application directly.
When was the Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation job at waymo posted?
This Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation position at waymo was posted on Feb 6, 2026. Apply as soon as possible — early applications are often reviewed first.
Staff Machine Learning Engineer – VLM/LLM Evaluation
waymo
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