Senior Software Engineer (Eval Authoring APIs)

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.

Team and Responsibilities

The Waymo Driver is performing well in more and more cities, with our scale rapidly accelerating. Our team's job is to ensure that we can continue to evaluate safety and service quality across new cities and countries, each with their unique challenges. The Eval Authoring APIs team's mission is to establish the foundational API and tooling required to support the eval development lifecycle, encompassing creation, validation, testing, and publishing. We are seeking an experienced, technically hands‑on Senior Software Engineer to design and implement these core authoring APIs.

In this hybrid role, you will report to the Sr. Staff Manager.

You will:

• Drive the technical architecture and implementation of core services that enable evaluation engineers to author, manage, and execute evaluation workflows at scale.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with Eval developers, sim and analysis infra teams to translate ambiguous requirements into clean, well‑documented, and easy‑to‑use API contracts and engineering deliverables.
• Ensure the authoring APIs are representative of real‑world evaluation complexity, computationally efficient, and highly reliable.
• Mentor junior engineers and champion software development best practices within the team.

You have:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of hands‑on experience in software engineering, focused on backend systems or APIs.
• Extensive experience building scalable, distributed systems and developer‑facing APIs.
• Proven track record of technical contributions, owning large features from design to deployment.
• Expertise in systems design and data modeling for high‑throughput, low‑latency applications.
• Strong proficiency in C++ or Python.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with experience working with cross‑functional partners.

We prefer:

• Experience designing API‑centric systems for internal developer platforms or tools.
• Advanced degree (Master's) in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Familiarity with the software development lifecycle for evaluation or machine learning systems.
• A passion for safety‑critical systems and the desire to build robust developer experiences.

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