2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Machine Learning, Simulation Realism
Waymo
Salary undisclosed
Need a reasonable accommodation to apply or interview? Contact us.
JobMinglr uses automated technology to recommend jobs based on profile information and job preferences. Match Score does not determine eligibility for a position, prevent a user from viewing or applying to a job, or make hiring decisions on behalf of an employer.
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.
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.
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 controllable & realistic adversarial agents for more efficient simulation based evaluation and deploy them in the Waymo Simulator
- Iterate on the post-training recipes for the state-of-the-art Foundation Models and Waymo World Models
You have:
- Currently pursuing a PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Robotics, or a related technical field
- Proficient in Python Coding and Tensor Manipulation (using Pytorch / NumPy / JAX / TensorFlow / etc.)
- Experience with Machine Learning and Deep Learning
- Hands-on experience with models post-training and reinforcement learning
We prefer:
- Hands-on experience with post-training and reinforcement learning
- Hands-on experience with attention mechanisms, diffusion and / or autoregressive architectures
- Experience with autonomous driving or robotics
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 annual pay 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.
About this role
Waymo's simulation team is looking for a PhD intern to work on making their autonomous driving simulator more realistic and efficient. You'd develop adversarial agents that can be controlled to test edge cases and challenging scenarios, then deploy them within the Waymo Simulator. You'll also contribute to refining post-training approaches for foundation models and world models—the AI systems that help the Waymo Driver understand and predict its environment.
This role suits someone with strong fundamentals in machine learning and Python who's actively pursuing a PhD in computer science, machine learning, robotics, or a related field. You should be comfortable with tensor manipulation libraries and have hands-on experience with deep learning. If you've worked with reinforcement learning, diffusion models, attention mechanisms, or autoregressive architectures, you'll have an edge. Prior exposure to autonomous driving or robotics is a bonus but not required.
The internship is hybrid based in London and runs for the summer of 2027. You'll earn £80,000 annually and have access to Waymo's benefits programs. This is a chance to work on a concrete problem in simulation realism that directly impacts how Waymo tests its autonomous driving technology.
How this employer is doing
solid
- News: Growing or Expanding
- H1B: Active Visa Sponsor
- Expanding
- Active Visa Sponsor
In the news
Waymo Expands To Toronto. Will They Use The Ojai? Robotaxis In Canada, Forbes
This role's local market on JobMinglr
Pay for this role
The employer didn't post a pay range for this role. That usually means pay is set in negotiation, which favors whoever arrives with numbers. Check ranges on comparable 2027 Summer Intern, PhD, Machine Learning, Simulation Realism postings in London, and analyze any offer before you accept it.
Before you apply, worth reading
How JobMinglr reads this job
Every listing here is scored against your profile before you apply: skills overlap, experience level, location and work arrangement, each weighted and explained. You see the score and the reasons, not just a list. How the matching works.