Senior Research Scientist, Foundation Model (LLM/VLM)

The mission of the Waymo Applied Research team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of the safely operating Waymo vehicles in dozens of cities and under all driving conditions. As part of our work, we also initiate and foster collaborations with other research teams in Alphabet.

In this hybrid role you will report to a Technical Lead Manager.         

You will: 

• Conduct applied foundation model research and development

• Design compelling experiments by training and evaluating large deep learning models

• Present results to peers and leadership

• Write high quality code, unit tests, and documentation

You have:

• Masters or PhD in deep learning in behavior and agent modeling or simulation

• Proficiency in Python

• 3+ years of experience with modern deep learning frameworks. Prefer JAX or TensorFlow 2; however, Pytorch is acceptable.

• Experience in generative modeling and LLMs or VLMs (e.g., Gemini, Llama, GPT)

We prefer:

Experience with:

• Post-training, incl. reinforcement learning
• Distillation
• Transformer models
• Autoencoders and embeddings

In accordance with Washington state law, we are highlighting our comprehensive benefits package, which is available to all eligible US based employees. Benefits for this role include:

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
• Retirement Benefits: 401(k) with company match
• Paid Time Off: 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (statutory, where applicable); 5 days/event (discretionary)
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
• Holidays: 13 paid days per year