Principal Software Engineer (ML System Architect)

Join Waymo, a leader in autonomous driving technology, as a Principal Software Engineer (ML System Architect). In this hybrid role, you will provide the technical vision, architectural design, and cross-team leadership to transform Waymo's offboard ML landscape into a cohesive and efficient platform. You will define the technical roadmap, lead codebase consolidation, serve as the primary technical interface with GDM, unify core components, architect for scalable training, provide technical leadership, and drive efficiency in model development. Enjoy a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, competitive compensation, and a hybrid work model.

• Architect ML Systems: Define and drive the technical roadmap for the platform, encompassing codebase unification, data pipelines, model architecture, training recipes, and evaluation frameworks.
• Codebase Consolidation & Best Practices: Lead the unification of existing forked locations of foundation model component codebases into a production-hardened, shared repository. Establish and enforce rigorous coding standards, testing practices, and API designs.
• GDM Integration & API Definition: Serve as the primary technical interface between Waymo's offboard model development and GDM's core model and framework teams. Define clear APIs and integration patterns.
• Technical leadership skills, with the ability to drive strategy, influence across teams, and mentor other engineers
• 12+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 8+ years focused on large-scale machine learning systems, deep learning frameworks, and AI infrastructure
• Experience working effectively with research and product teams, and influencing across organizational boundaries
• Understanding of data pipelines, storage systems, and tokenization techniques
• Demonstrated ability to design robust, scalable, and maintainable software architectures and APIs
• Extensive experience with large-scale distributed training on TPUs/GPUs and associated challenges
• A track record of architecting and delivering complex, high-impact ML platforms or models
• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science or a related field
• Deep expertise in Python, C++, and ML frameworks like JAX, Gemax, and TensorFlow
• Communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical vision and drive alignment, capable of conveying complex technical ideas clearly
• Experience with multimodal and generative models
• Experience in autonomous vehicle systems or robotics
• Contributions to open-source ML frameworks or widely used internal tools
• Experience with simulation systems