Senior Safety Researcher, Computational Behavior Modeling

Waymo
London, England, United Kingdom / London (UK-LON-40BR), London, England, United Kingdom2026-05-13

About the job

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world's most trusted driver. The Waymo Safety team works to promote and help to continuously improve the safety of Waymo’s fully autonomous driving technology. In this hybrid role, you will report to the Senior Staff Safety Researcher, Human Behavior.

Responsibilities

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 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

Qualifications

Minimum

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

Preferred

Experience in active inference-based modeling

Experience in modern AI-based modeling (world models, learning paradigms etc.)

Experience in traffic safety research