Staff Software Engineer, Collision Avoidance Testing
Waymo
Listing collected from Waymo's career site. NextChapter is independent of Waymo.
Mountain View, CA · $251k–$310k a year · Posted August 6, 2026
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Where Mountain View, CA ranks
Where Mountain View, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for AI-skill jobs45% · of 100
- #1Best cities for AI-skill jobs in the West Coast45% · of 71
- #1Best cities for mid-career professionals in the West Coast68% · of 71
- #1Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the West Coast85 / 100 · of 39
- #1Best all-round cities for AI careers in the West Coast96 / 100 · of 39
- #2Best cities for finance pay after cost of living$161k · of 35
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing pays about $280,500 a year. Across 402 open staff software engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $223,500 to $272,500 and the median is $244,000. That is 15% above the median, above the middle half of those listings.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Staff Software Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
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's Systems Engineering team works together to blend software and hardware systems in groundbreaking new ways. We set the high performance standards that ensure our vehicles run smoothly and keep passengers safe, then design and perform the tests that validate that performance. We're looking for talented teammates who’ll help us maintain strong teamwork and are passionate about driving results.
This role follows a hybrid work schedule and you will report to Systems Engineering Leadership.
You will:
Architect software and design systems that enable scalable and maintainable testing of autonomous vehicle collision avoidance capabilities
Establish strategic technical partnerships with the simulation team to co-design well-defined and extensible APIs
Integrate, test, and validate the latest state of the art simulation technologies with our collision avoidance testing framework
Develop new tools and capabilities to automate test quality and performance
Provide mentorship to junior engineers
You have:
BS in Computer Science or a related field
10+ years of experience in Software Engineering
Demonstrated ability to design robust, scalable, and maintainable software architectures and APIs
Strong C++ and Python coding skills
Technical leadership skills, with the ability to drive strategy, influence across teams, and mentor other engineers
We prefer:
Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science or a related field
Experience in autonomous vehicles or robotics
Experience with simulation systems
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