Data Infra Engineer

Waymo
Mountain View, CA
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for distributed systems engineers who design and maintain high-throughput data pipelines, with a focus on production monitoring and compliance.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 4+ years of distributed systems experience and a background in data pipeline development
    — “4+ years of professional backend software engineering experience, focused heavily on distributed systems, databases, and production monitoring
  • Individuals comfortable with C++, SQL, and large-scale processing frameworks like Spark or Flink
    — “Advanced proficiency in C++ and SQL applied to high-throughput batch and streaming processing pipelines
  • Engineers with a track record of implementing compliance, privacy, and security infrastructure
    — “Experience baking Data Governance, Privacy, or Compliance layers (e.g., encryption, GDPR, RBAC/ACLs) directly into core infrastructure

Things to consider

  • Hybrid work model requires regular in-office presence in Mountain View, California
    — “This role follows a hybrid work schedule
  • The role demands a high level of independence in maintaining rigorous operational standards
    — “Establish rigorous operational standards, guarding pipelines with regression tests, staging environments, Canary/Progressive rollouts to defend high SLO

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with end-to-end data pipeline development and compliance integration
    — “Build, harden, and democratize Data Pipeline Services, offering standard templates and self-service gateways for downstream consumption
  • Emphasize your ability to implement secure and compliant data infrastructure
    — “Implement foundational compliance, privacy, and security infrastructure (e.g., GDPR wipeout, ACL management, BCID enforcement, and identity proxies)
  • Demonstrate your ability to work with data engineers and data scientists on platform consistency
    — “Collaborate with Data Engineers and Product Data Scientists to set global platform consistency, dependency tracing, and linear DAG architecture guidelines
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • designing and maintaining high-throughput distributed backend components
  • ingesting and processing petabytes of logs
  • building and democratizing data pipeline services
Typical background
4+ years of professional backend software engineering experience

Skills & requirements

Required

Distributed SystemsDatabasesProduction MonitoringC++SQLData StructuresAlgorithmsSoftware Design Principles

Preferred

Distributed Processing FrameworksData WarehouseData Lake SystemsData GovernancePrivacyComplianceGoogle-internal Pipeline/data Stacks

Stack & domain

C++SQLApache SparkApache FlinkApache BeamData StructuresAlgorithmsSoftware Design PrinciplesData InfrastructureDistributed SystemsDatabasesProduction Monitoring

About the role

Original posting from Waymo

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.

    This role follows a hybrid work schedule.        

    You will:        

  • Design, develop, and maintain high-throughput distributed backend components and services (C++, Flume/Apache Spark/Flink/Beam) powering Waymo's Commercialization Data Lake.    
  • Own the scalable ingestion of data from raw system telemetry and RPC logs, processing petabytes of logs into reliable, daily canonical base tables.    
  • Build, harden, and democratize Data Pipeline Services, offering standard templates and self-service gateways for downstream consumption.    
  • Implement foundational compliance, privacy, and security infrastructure (e.g., GDPR wipeout, ACL management, BCID enforcement, and identity proxies).    
  • Establish rigorous operational standards, guarding pipelines with regression tests, staging environments, Canary/Progressive rollouts to defend high SLO.    
  • Collaborate with Data Engineers and Product Data Scientists to set global platform consistency, dependency tracing, and linear DAG architecture guidelines.    

    You have:        

  • BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent.    
  • 4+ years of professional backend software engineering experience, focused heavily on distributed systems, databases, and production monitoring.    
  • Excellent understanding of data structures, algorithms, and fundamental software design principles.    
  • Advanced proficiency in C++ and SQL applied to high-throughput batch and streaming processing pipelines.    
  • Prior experience running data pipelines through hardened release setups (Canarying, Staging environments, Automated Rollbacks).    

    We prefer:        

  • Extensive experience with distributed processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Flink, Beam, Hadoop, Flume, or equivalent large-scale processing engines).    
  • Experience in building and maintaining Data Warehouse / Data Lake systems    
  • Experience baking Data Governance, Privacy, or Compliance layers (e.g., encryption, GDPR, RBAC/ACLs) directly into core infrastructure.    
  • High proficiency with Google-internal pipeline/data stacks (Flume, SQLP, Rapid, CAS, F1).    

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

Source: Waymo careers

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