2027 Summer Intern, MS/PhD, Conflict Behavior at Waymo (Mountain View, CA)
Waymo· Mountain View, CA· $70–$85/hr·
Role details
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.
Waymo's Systems Engineering team works together to blend software and hardware systems in groundbreaking new ways. We set the high performance standards that ensure our vehicles run smoothly and keep passengers safe, then design and perform the tests that validate that performance. We're looking for talented teammates who’ll help us maintain strong teamwork and are passionate about driving results.
Waymo interns partner with leaders in the industry on projects that create impact to the company. We believe learning is a two-way street: applying 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:
- Calibrate and validate physical reachability and safety-margin metrics against expert human evaluations to quantify "proactive caution" in complex scenarios
- Analyze large-scale real-world and simulated driving logs to evaluate model accuracy, characterize edge cases, and optimize trade-offs
- Partner cross-functionally to integrate quantitative safety signals into automated event triage and release-readiness workflows
You have:
- Currently pursuing an Master's or PhD degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related quantitative field
- Proficiency in Python and/or C++
- Experience analyzing, wrangling, and visualizing large-scale datasets
- Demonstrated analytical and statistical skills for validating quantitative models
We prefer:
- Familiarity with SQL
- Familiarity with autonomous vehicles, robotics, crash safety analysis, or human driving behavior modeling
- Experience working with rare-event modeling, anomaly detection, or highly imbalanced datasets in complex real-world domains (e.g., autonomous systems, robotics, experimental physics, crash safety, or healthcare)
- Solid foundation in machine learning and statistical evaluation fundamentals
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. 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 Masters Pay $70—$70 USD
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 $85—$85 USD
Why work at Waymo
- Impact: Work on technology that directly saves lives (1.4M traffic deaths globally each year) and reshapes the future of transportation.
- Culture: Waymo describes itself as a place for “ambitious thinkers and relentless problem solvers” with a deep respect for getting every detail right. Values include safety, innovation, and responsibility.
- Teams: Opportunities across Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, AI Foundations, Product & Design, Operations & Supply Chain, Safety, Policy, and General & Administrative roles.
- Internships: Strong early-career program with internships for Bachelors, Masters, MBA, and PhD candidates, often leading to full-time offers.
- Hiring process: Transparent and structured. Includes an initial recruiter screen, 1-2 phone/video interviews, and a virtual onsite (up to 5 interviews). Emphasizes problem-solving, collaboration, and real-time thinking. AI tools are not permitted during technical assessments to ensure fair evaluation.
- Remote/hybrid policy: The careers page lists both on-site and remote roles, with most engineering and operations roles based in Mountain View, San Francisco, or other US locations.
- Benefits: Top-notch benefits, unique learning opportunities, thoughtful community engagement, and meaningful gatherings. Specific perks are not detailed publicly but are described as comprehensive.