Senior Staff Data Scientist (Autonomous Driving)

TL;DR

Senior Staff Data Scientist (Autonomous Driving): Leading the development of methodologies and KPIs to measure the quality and trustworthiness of behavior evaluation for the Waymo Driver with an accent on statistical rigor and scalable evaluation frameworks. Focus on identifying performance bottlenecks, prototyping advanced metrics, and driving actionable insights to optimize launch criteria for autonomous vehicle systems.

Location: Onsite in Mountain View or San Francisco, California

Salary: $238,000–$302,000 USD

Company

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company dedicated to building the world's most trusted driver to improve mobility and safety.

What you will do

• Develop a roadmap for methodologies and KPIs to measure the quality, cost-efficiency, and business relevance of behavior evaluation solutions.
• Influence the portfolio of evaluation signals used by software engineers to validate changes in the Waymo Driver.
• Conduct deep-dive analyses to identify performance bottlenecks and prototype improvements in metrics, sampling, and statistical inference.
• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to build scalable solutions for assessing the evaluation ecosystem.
• Develop feedback loops to surface insights on evaluation quality and drive continuous improvement plans.

Requirements

• Degree in a quantitative field (Statistics, Mathematics, Physics).
• PhD with 5+ years of industry experience OR 7+ years of industry experience in data science.
• Solid statistical background with expertise in experimentation design and causal inference.
• Demonstrated knowledge of data analysis libraries in Python, R, and SQL.
• Strong communication and leadership skills to navigate cross-functional organizations.

Nice to have

• PhD in a quantitative field.
• Experience developing production-grade software and tools.
• Track record as a technical lead for broad data science areas.
• Experience with large-scale evaluation frameworks or experimentation platforms.
• Experience solving problems related to Autonomous Driving or Ride Hailing.

Culture & Benefits

• Participation in a discretionary annual bonus program.
• Equity incentive plan.
• Generous company benefits program.
• Opportunity to work on world-leading autonomous driving technology.