Sr. Staff Software Engineer, DUE Experience

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. Disclosure for WA Based & Remote Roles: 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 US Remote Only: Please note that Waymo may not be able to employ remotely in all US locations. Please speak with your recruiter about your preferred location for remote work when you begin the interview process. 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