The opportunity
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…
What you'll do
Own steering system requirements (EPS and steer-by-wire) for the Waymo Driver: through their full lifecycle, covering steering tracking performance, redundancy and safe behavior under faults
Drive steering architecture and fault-tolerance trade studies, such as: dual-wound motors, dual ECUs and leader/follower arbitration, redundant sensing, power and communication, degraded-assist levels and thermal derating, to deliver fail-operational steering
Define and review steering fault monitors and the self-driving system's: response to each fault (detection thresholds, debounce, latching and minimal-risk maneuvers), partnering with Functional Safety on ISO 26262 (ASIL D) safety concepts
Serve as the technical lead with steering suppliers and vehicle OEM partners:: review specifications, firmware release content and CAN/CAN-FD interface definitions, and drive supplier defects to closure across sample phases
Lead root-cause investigations of steering issues found in HIL, on the test: track and in the fleet, analyzing vehicle logs and CAN traces and building Python tools that automate analysis of fleet data
Define verification strategy and sign off steering for driverless operation,: covering steering performance (latency, bandwidth, rack speed, tracking error, tire-limit behavior), thermal and endurance cases, and evidence from HIL, track and fleet testing
What they're looking for
- + years of experience developing and integrating safety-critical systems in: the automotive, autonomous vehicle, aerospace, robotics, or related industries, with at least part of that time focused on steering systems
- Demonstrated ownership of system-level requirements, architecture or control: strategy for an automotive steering system (EPS, steer-by-wire or rear-wheel steering) at an OEM, Tier 1 supplier or AV company
- Working knowledge of steering hardware and physics: rack, column and pinion EPS layouts, BLDC/PMSM motors and inverters, torque and angle sensing, rack force, and tire and vehicle dynamics basics
- Strong foundation in systems engineering principles such as requirements: definition and traceability, verification and validation, and HIL or vehicle-level testing
