Safety Researcher - Severity and Safety Impact

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 Waymo Safety team works to promote and help to continuously improve the safety of Waymo’s fully autonomous driving technology. Our experts develop safety goals and strategies, and conduct safety engineering analyses to ensure safety is being considered throughout the design and development of our vehicles. The team develops and promotes safety strategies and policies for autonomous vehicles for its work with regulatory authorities, lawmakers, law enforcement and public and non-profit organizations. Our Safety Team also helps advise on compliance with applicable environmental, health, and safety regulations.

In this remote role, you will report to a Safety Research Manager.

You will:

• Plan and conduct safety research projects in the area of safety impact and severity estimation, leveraging state-of-the-art methodologies and/or by establishing research partnerships with experts in the field

• Publish and present peer-reviewed safety research in leading safety journals and conferences

• Acquire and maintain safety-related data sources to enable research

• Support, and if necessary lead, internal safety assessments that set design and/or evaluation targets

• Support, and if necessary lead, development of internal safety assessment practices related to the Waymo Safety Framework and Safety Case in the areas of severity estimation and scenario-based testing

You have:

• Expertise in vehicle safety, safety impact assessment, injury risk assessment, safe system approach, scenario-based testing, or other applicable fields

• Ability to generate research questions and prioritize research direction that will have the most impact in achieving Waymo’s goals

• Proven scientific writing experience (e.g., peer reviewed publication history)

• Engaging and clear scientific presentation skills (e.g., presenting at scientific conferences)

• Quantitative analysis skills, including the ability to perform statistical modeling and data analytics using computational software

• Ability to work with cross functional engineering teams to deliver analysis to support safety evaluation and product development

We prefer:

• An advanced research degree (Ph.D. or equivalent)

• Ability to perform quantitative analysis using languages such as R, python, and SQL

• Research leadership experience (e.g., grant writing, supervision)

• International safety research perspectives (e.g., Europe, Japan)

• Familiarity with vehicle automation technologies

Travel requirements:

• Ability to travel to scientific conferences and company events around the world ~15% of the time

((Remote jobs only - Please note that Waymo may not be able to employ remotely in all locations. Please speak with your recruiter about your preferred location for remote work when you begin the interview process.))

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
$230,000—$292,000 USD