Staff Software Engineer, Compute Reliability

Waymo
Mountain View, US
On-siteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Best suited to mid-level engineers with C++ and GPU/TPU acceleration experience working on autonomous vehicle compute platforms.

Best fit for

  • Engineers with expertise in CUDA/GPU/TPU acceleration and model reliability.
    — “Experience with CUDA/GPU/TPU acceleration and model reliability or optimization.
  • Candidates who can architect solutions to prevent and debug compute hardware issues.
    — “Design and implement long-term strategies to systematically mitigate compute hardware reliability.
  • Technical leaders comfortable influencing cross-functional initiatives with Alphabet and external partners.
    — “Lead cross-functional initiatives across Waymo, Alphabet, and external partners.

Things to consider

  • Hybrid role requiring collaboration with a Tech Lead Manager.
    — “In this hybrid role you will report to a Tech Lead Manager.
  • Focus on proactive issue prevention and debugging across heterogeneous platforms.
    — “proactively prevent, detect, and debug reliability issues across current and future Waymo compute platforms.

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with autonomous vehicles or ADAS systems in your resume.
    — “Experience with autonomous vehicles (L4) or ADAS systems (L2/L3).
  • Demonstrate your ability to architect frameworks for diagnosing complex software faults.
    — “Architect frameworks and diagnostics to proactively identify and eliminate complex software and firmware faults.
  • Showcase your background in software reliability and optimization.
    — “Experience in software reliability space.
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Senior

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

What success looks like

  • designed and developed instrumentation and onboard architecture
  • implemented long-term strategies to mitigate reliability issues
  • led cross-functional initiatives
  • architected frameworks and diagnostics
  • influenced the design and tooling of next-generation hardware platforms
Typical background
BS/MS in Comp Sci, EE, Robotics, Physics, Mathexperience in C++experience with CUDA/GPU/TPU acceleration and model reliability or optimization

Skills & requirements

Required

C++CUDAGpu/tpu AccelerationModel ReliabilityOptimizationWriting GPU KernelsEvaluation And Debugging Of GPU Workloads

Preferred

MS Or Phd In Computer Science, RoboticsExperience With Autonomous VehiclesExperience In Software Reliability Space

Stack & domain

C++CudaTpuGpuJaxLlvmXlaAutofdoCollaborationInfluenceAutonomous VehiclesAISoftware Reliability

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.

The Planner/Perception Reliability team’s goal is to build out architectures, tools, and workflows to prevent, identify, and guide fixes of reliability and software integrity issues. 

We focus the organization on reliability and are accountable for the onboard software health while enabling high development velocity.

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

You will:

Drive the design and development of instrumentation and onboard architecture to proactively prevent, detect, and debug reliability issues across current and future Waymo compute platforms.

Design and implement long-term strategies to systematically mitigate compute hardware reliability and numerical stability issues across heterogeneous platforms (CPU, TPU, GPU), creating scalable tools to automate triage, debugging, and resolution.

Lead cross-functional initiatives across Waymo, Alphabet, and external partners to architect proactive solutions that prevent issues originating from compilers (LLVM, XLA, JAX), optimization (AutoFDO), or model changes.

Architect frameworks and diagnostics to proactively identify and eliminate complex software and firmware faults, including deadlocks, memory corruption, race conditions, memory leaks, or tail latency spikes.

Influence the design and tooling of next-generation hardware platforms, serving as a technical authority to ensure a coherent, forward-looking reliability architecture.

You have:

BS/MS in Comp Sci, EE, Robotics, Physics, Math, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Experience in C++.

Experience with CUDA/GPU/TPU acceleration and model reliability or optimization.

Experience with writing GPU kernels and evaluation/debugging of GPU workloads.

We prefer:

MS or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, similar technical field of study, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience with autonomous vehicles (L4) or ADAS systems (L2/L3).

Experience in software reliability space.

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$251,000—$310,000 USD

Source: Waymo careers

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