The role
From Waymo's own posting.
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.
Waymo Hardware Systems Architecture defines and validates the foundational electrical, communication network, diagnostic, software update, and cybersecurity architecture—the digital "nervous system"—across multiple autonomous vehicle platforms. Sitting at the intersection of hardware and software co-design, we define vehicle-level network and security specifications and build the real-time diagnostic and automated verification infrastructure that keeps our fleet operating safely.
Waymo interns partner with leaders in the industry on projects that create impact to the company. We believe learning is a two-way street: applying your knowledge while providing you with opportunities to expand your skill-set. Interns are an important part of our culture and our recruiting pipeline. Join us at Waymo for a fun and rewarding internship!
You will:
Build Real-Time Network Monitoring & Diagnostics Infrastructure : Design and build Python infrastructure to enable real-time diagnostics and health monitoring for vehicle communication networks (CAN, CAN-FD, Ethernet) across multiple autonomous vehicle platforms.
Develop Automated Verification Pipelines : Build automated verification and validation pipelines that evaluate vehicle network communication, diagnostic functionality, and system health across test benches and vehicle fleets.
Monitor & Validate Security Mechanisms : Create diagnostic checks and monitoring workflows for in-vehicle network security and cryptographic mechanisms, analyzing network performance and timing margins.
Build Rapidly with AI Code Generation : Leverage AI-based developer tooling and AI code generation workflows to rapidly prototype, test, and scale modular diagnostic and verification software.
Collaborate Across Systems Engineering Customers : Partner with Systems Architects, Network Engineers, and Vehicle Security Engineers to analyze network data, troubleshoot integration issues, and refine multi-platform vehicle requirements.
You have:
Currently pursuing a MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Mechanical/Automotive Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
Strong proficiency in Python for building modular software infrastructure, automated verification pipelines, and data analysis tools.
High fluency with AI-based tooling and AI code generation : Very comfortable and experienced with coding and building end-to-end software projects using modern AI code generation tools.
Solid foundational understanding of communication networks and protocols, ideally including CAN and CAN-FD .
We prefer:
Hands-on experience with vehicle or embedded communication networks ( CAN , CAN-FD , Automotive Ethernet ) and diagnostic protocols, as well as Python network tooling (cantools, python-can).
Basic understanding of cryptography and network security concepts (e.g., message authentication codes, cryptographic authentication, or secure embedded communications).
Experience building automated test or verification pipelines (pytest, CI/CD) or working with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) / embedded test benches.
Hands-on experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics (ROS/ROS2), Formula SAE, EcoCAR, or embedded systems projects.
Note: This will be a hybrid onsite internship position. We will accept resumes on a rolling basis until the role is filled. To be in consideration for multiple roles, you will need to apply to each one individually - please apply to the top 3 roles you are interested in.
The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is listed below. Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company’s generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.
Hourly Masters Pay
$70 — $70 USD
The expected hourly rate for this full-time position is listed below. Interns are also eligible to participate in the Company’s generous benefits programs, subject to eligibility requirements.
Hourly PhD Pay
$85 — $85 USD