Safety Researcher, Computational Behavior Modeling

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 hybrid role, you will report to the Senior Staff Safety Researcher, Human Behavior.

• Be a technical leader in the area of computational road user behavior modeling
  
• Research and develop metrics and computational models of road user cognition and behavior for use in Waymo's safety evaluation methodologies
• Work closely with other Waymo teams, in particular the the Simulation and AI Foundations teams, to productionize behavioral metrics/models in Waymo’s simulation infrastructure
• Explore and innovate novel modeling concepts and ideas in research projects with external academic partners
• Publish your work in scientific journals and conferences 

• A doctoral degree in a field that involves a combination of computational/mathematical modeling and cognitive science/ behavioral science
• At least 5 years of experience, and a strong publication record, in computational modeling of human and/or animal cognition and behavior
• Strong coding and mathematical skills
• Strong collaboration and communication skills 

• Experience in active inference-based modeling
• Experience in modern AI-based modeling (world models, learning paradigms etc.)
• Experience in traffic safety research

Travel:
Travel is required for this role and can be up to 10%. Travel would consist of attending global academic conferences and traveling to Waymo's headquarters.