Software Engineer, Planner

Waymo
Mountain View, California, United StatesFull-time$213,000–$263,000Posted Aug 26, 2026

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.

In this hybrid role, you will report to Technical Lead Manager

You Will

Work with a creative team of people who ensure that the behavior of our cars is safe, smooth, and predictable to other road users, which includes gracefully handling many complex situations involving social aspects (merging, negotiating narrow roads), while dealing with noisy, uncertain, and incomplete information.

Frame the open-ended real-world problems into well-defined engineering problems; develop tools, algorithms and evaluation mechanisms; scale them to Google-sized data pipelines; and refine them to run in real-time on the cars.

You Have

BS in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience

3+ years general software engineering experience programming in C++ with efficient code

Experience collaborating with different teams

We Prefer

MS in Computer Science, ML Robotics, similar technical field of study

General software engineering experience solving motion planning or related robotics problems

Building or evaluating ML-based systems

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

$213,000—$263,000 USD

Responsibilities

  • Work with a creative team to ensure safe and predictable car behavior
  • Frame real-world problems into well-defined engineering problems
  • Develop tools, algorithms, and evaluation mechanisms
  • Scale solutions to Google-sized data pipelines
  • Refine solutions to run in real-time on cars

Qualifications

  • BS in Computer Science, ML, Robotics, or equivalent practical experience
  • 3+ years general software engineering experience programming in C++
  • Experience collaborating with different teams

Benefits

  • Discretionary annual bonus program
  • Equity incentive plan
  • Generous Company benefits program

Skills mentioned

C++RoboticsMachine LearningPerformance OptimizationData PipelinesModel EvaluationSystems EngineeringDistributed SystemsConcurrencyReal-Time Operating Systems

About Waymo

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.

Technology1,001-5,000 employeesMountain View, California

H-1B sponsorship history

Historical employer filing data was found for Waymo. The employer record includes 1,578 historical certified applications. This is employer-level history, not a guarantee that this role currently offers sponsorship.