INTERNSHIP DETAILS

2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Machine Learning Research

CompanyWaymo
LocationMountain View
Work ModeOn Site
PostedSeptember 28, 2026
Internship Information
Core Responsibilities
Interns will research, implement, and evaluate state-of-the-art machine learning models for autonomous driving planning and prediction. They will also collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop high-quality code and contribute to the company's autonomous vehicle technology.
Internship Type
full time
Company Size
4838
Visa Sponsorship
No
Language
English
Working Hours
40 hours
Apply Now →

You'll be redirected to
the company's application page

About The Company
On the journey to be the world's most trusted driver. With the Waymo Driver, we can improve mobility while saving thousands of lives. Download the Waymo One app and ride today. Waymo reaches out to candidates from official channels only (e.g. directly from @waymo.com email addresses, or through our recruiters or sourcers who are noted as such on LinkedIn). We do not contact candidates about career opportunities through instant messaging apps like Telegram, email addresses from domains other than waymo.com (such as Gmail addresses), direct messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or text messages. Visit waymo.com to check out our official job listings. Need support? Send us a message – we're here to help.
About the 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.

Software Engineering builds the brains of Waymo's fully autonomous driving technology. Our software allows the Waymo Driver to perceive the world around it, make the right decision for every situation, and deliver people safely to their destinations. We think deeply and solve complex technical challenges in areas like robotics, perception, decision-making and deep learning, while collaborating with hardware and systems engineers. If you’re a software engineer or researcher who’s curious and passionate about Level 4 autonomous driving, we'd like to meet you. 

The subteam for this role will be:

The Predictive Planning team (PrePlan) develops and deploys state of the art machine learning solutions that predicts the future State of the world and plan the Waymo Driver's Behavior. Our mission is to transform Waymo's unprecedented scale of driving data into robust, generalizable, and perform at deep neural networks. These models enable the autonomous vehicle to navigate complex environments safely and efficiently.

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:

  • Research, implement, and evaluate state-of-the-art generative models for planning and predictions using JAX
  • Conduct machine learning models experiments
  • Product high-quality, thoroughly tested code
  • Collaborate with research, product, and engineering teams to introduce new research concepts

 

You have:

  • Currently pursuing a PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or related field
  • Experience with deep learning, or reinforcement learning
  • Hands-on experience with modern deep learning libraries (eg: TensorFlow, JAX, Pytorch) with basic programming skills (eg: Python, C/C++)
  • Strong analytical and debugging skills

 

We prefer:

  • Publications in top-tier conferences such as: ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICLR, IROS, CoRL, ACL, or EMNLP
  • Prior software development or research industry experience (including internships)

Software Engineering builds the brains of Waymo's fully autonomous driving technology. Our software allows the Waymo Driver to perceive the world around it, make the right decision for every situation, and deliver people safely to their destinations. We think deeply and solve complex technical challenges in areas like robotics, perception, decision-making and deep learning, while collaborating with hardware and systems engineers. If you’re a software engineer or researcher who’s curious and passionate about Level 4 autonomous driving, we'd like to meet you. 

The subteam for this role will be:

The Reasoning Platform team builds and maintains the foundational APIs, architecture, and frameworks that power all the Reasoning subteams at Waymo. We own the interfaces connecting reasoning logic to the rest of the Waymo Planner, both on and off the vehicle.

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:

  • Develop robust and performant C++ autolabeler code to mine for useful events from everyday driving
  • Label ground truth and evaluate autolabeler quality
  • Experiment with different approaches and report on what works best

You have:

  • Pursuing a Bachelor’s in software engineering or a related field
  • Strong C++ coding ability
  • Solid understanding of fundamental algorithms and data structures
  • Proficiency with software testing (unit testing, integration testing, regression testing)
  • Comfortable working with data and designing metrics
  • Ability to communicate and collaborate well. Experience working in teams

We prefer:

  • Passion for the autonomous driving industry
  • Experience with software for autonomous robots
  • Good communication skills and eagerness to collaborate
  • Understanding of version control systems
  • Experience with developing in a Linux environment

General Perks

  • Help solve challenging problems with a direct impact on the company
  • Competitive compensation packages with a housing/relocation bonus (if applicable)
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Fun intern events and networking opportunities

Onsite Perks

  • Free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks 
  • Free access to Google shuttles
  • Onsite gym

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 PhD Pay
$85—$85 USD
Key Skills
Machine learningDeep learningReinforcement learningPythonC++JAXTensorFlowPytorchGenerative modelsPredictive planningAutonomous drivingRoboticsSoftware testingLinuxAlgorithmsData structures
Categories
TechnologySoftwareEngineeringScience & ResearchTransportation
Benefits
Medical insuranceDental insuranceVision insuranceHousing bonusRelocation bonusFree breakfastFree lunchFree dinnerFree snacksGoogle shuttlesOnsite gymIntern eventsNetworking opportunities