Hardware Engineer, LIDAR Performance Validation

Hardware Engineering is an innovative and collaborative group of electrical, mechanical, reliability, software and vehicle engineers. We design, build, and perfect the products which are the eyes and ears of Waymo's autonomous driving technology, and integrate those products into vehicle platforms. We're seeking curious and talented teammates to keep us moving in the right direction.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule (at least 3 fixed days in the office) and reports to the LiDAR performance lead.

You will:

• Work closely with electrical, mechanical, manufacturing and reliability engineers to develop and characterize high performance LiDAR systems and electro-optical subsystems
• Develop bench characterization methods and accompanying physics-based software models to ensure the design is on track to achieve top level performance goals. Develop and maintain performance validation plans that scale appropriately with the design lifecycle from early bench prototypes to high volume production
• Support definition of appropriate test and calibration procedures to ensure LiDAR data quality at scale. Work with design and test engineers to develop appropriate testing procedures and performance acceptance criteria.
• Design and oversee execution of LiDAR field measurements and structured tests. Assess impact of environmental conditions on Lidar performance, help develop methods to detect and mitigate data quality impact of adverse environmental factors through experimental design, data mining and analysis
• Interface with LiDAR software engineers, perception software engineers and systems engineers to help triage field issues related to LiDAR data quality, and aid in requirement derivation to ensure the LiDAR module upholds system-level performance and safety goals
• Comfortably transition between physics modeling, simulation, large-scale data analysis and hands-on prototyping & testing in the lab

You have:

• Masters of science with 5+ years experience or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics or equivalent
• Strong knowledge of depth sensing technologies and hands on experience prototyping/characterizing precision optical, electrical, or mechanical components and assemblies
• Experience with developing and maintaining physics-based computational models to describe and quantify performance bounds of LiDAR or other optical sensing hardware
• Track record of innovation and solving challenging technical problems
• Excellent data analysis, presentation and technical communication skills

We prefer:

• PhD in Physics, Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a similar field
• Proficiency with data analysis in Python or C++
• Experience with designing studies / experiments and hypothesis testing. Previous product development experience is a plus.
• A track record of working across multiple physics disciplines and hands-on experience with from-scratch analytical physics modeling (e.g. Matlab/Python)
• Strong understanding of optical semiconductors and optical systems