New

Principal Software Engineer, Perception Systems

Waymo
$332,000-$421,000 USD
United States, Washington, Seattle
Aug 05, 2025
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 One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over one million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 13+ U.S. states. The Perception team at Waymo builds technology that powers the Waymo Driver. Our models allow the Waymo Driver to perceive the world around it, make the right decision for every situation, and deliver people safely to their destinations. We conduct research to address real-world problems and collaborate with research teams at Alphabet. We have access to millions of miles of driving data from a diverse set of sensors, allowing ML practitioners like you to develop multi-modal models and techniques at scale. You will report to our Head of Perception. You will: Work closely with Perception engineers to understand their workflows and systems, with the goal of increasing development velocity. Act as a crucial bridge between Perception and all infrastructure teams to ensure optimal resource sharing and performance for scaling. Drive multi-year roadmaps for Perception systems, anticipating future scale based on business and technology roadmaps. Lead system design in collaboration with both infrastructure teams and Perception users. You have: 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with extensive experience in a technical leadership role. A strong track record of designing and building large-scale systems that support ML development, with very large-scale data and worker payloads. 6+ years of experience in a technical leadership role, guiding teams and setting the technical direction within large engineering organizations. A proven history of solving users' needs end-to-end, working backward from user requirements to design and evolve complex systems. We prefer: Experience driving cross-organizational efforts to transition large systems through major evolutions while supporting high production demands. Expertise in modern ML data, training, and evaluation systems for large models. Experience with budget management (e.g., compute, storage, memory) for workflows that support hundreds of developers. #LI-Hybrid 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 $332,000 — $421,000 USD