Staff Engineer Jobs in Los Angeles, CA
Staff Engineer jobs in Los Angeles are concentrated in Silicon Beach, Downtown LA, and the Playa Vista tech corridor, with strong demand across entertainment technology, aerospace, and enterprise software. Employers hiring right now include Riot Games, Motorola Solutions, and Commure. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Showing 5 of 268+ Staff Engineer jobs
INTRODUCTION
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.
The Driver Understanding and Evaluation (DUE) team at Waymo is developing rich metrics for understanding the behavior of the Waymo Driver in the real world, and technologies such as context and scene analysis to understand driving, understanding and augmenting real world driving data to generate rare driving events, build large scale data infrastructure, improve components such as agents and a realistic simulator. These technologies come together to drive the overall technical strategy and methodology used to evaluate the behavior of the Waymo Driver.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
You will:
- Own the architectural design and hands-on development of robust Agentic AI components, focusing on multi-agent orchestration, tool execution, and reasoning loops for event triage.
- Engineer scalable agentic workflows using modern LLM orchestration frameworks to automate and augment triage capabilities for Engineering and SWQOps.
- Implement stateful agentic infrastructure, including long-term memory management (RAG, vector databases), semantic routing, and custom internal tool integrations.
- Collaborate with partner teams to embed autonomous agents directly into the Waymo Driver evaluation lifecycle.
- Tackle complex automation problems by breaking them down into actionable multi-agent projects and driving the technical execution of the team's roadmap.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
You have:
- Significant experience (typically 5+ years) in software engineering, with a focus on designing, building, and maintaining complex distributed systems.
- Strong expertise in applied LLMs and Agentic AI development, with a proven track record of building multi-agent systems, reasoning engines, or autonomous workflows.
- Strong proficiency with agent orchestration frameworks and advanced prompt engineering.
- Proven ability to execute on technical strategy, collaborate inclusively with cross-functional teams, and drive end-to-end development of AI-native applications.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clarify technical limitations and solutions for partner teams.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
We prefer:
- Master's or PhD in Computer Science or a related field, with a specialization in AI/ML or a related area.
- Experience developing custom tools/plugins for agents, semantic routers, and implementing complex multi-agent collaborative patterns.
- Familiarity with autonomous vehicle simulation, testing, or evaluation domains.
- Proficiency in C++ and Python, with experience building production-grade microservices and pipelines.
- Experience working with large-scale data processing, knowledge graphs, and distributed systems.
- Familiarity with Google's or Waymo's internal AI/ML platforms and infrastructure.
COMPENSATION
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.
- Salary Range: $251,000—$310,000 USD
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.
LOCATION
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
JOB TYPE
FULL-TIME
WORKING CONDITIONS
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
INTRODUCTION
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.
The Driver Understanding and Evaluation (DUE) team at Waymo is developing rich metrics for understanding the behavior of the Waymo Driver in the real world, and technologies such as context and scene analysis to understand driving, understanding and augmenting real world driving data to generate rare driving events, build large scale data infrastructure, improve components such as agents and a realistic simulator. These technologies come together to drive the overall technical strategy and methodology used to evaluate the behavior of the Waymo Driver.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
You will:
- Own the architectural design and hands-on development of robust Agentic AI components, focusing on multi-agent orchestration, tool execution, and reasoning loops for event triage.
- Engineer scalable agentic workflows using modern LLM orchestration frameworks to automate and augment triage capabilities for Engineering and SWQOps.
- Implement stateful agentic infrastructure, including long-term memory management (RAG, vector databases), semantic routing, and custom internal tool integrations.
- Collaborate with partner teams to embed autonomous agents directly into the Waymo Driver evaluation lifecycle.
- Tackle complex automation problems by breaking them down into actionable multi-agent projects and driving the technical execution of the team's roadmap.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
You have:
- Significant experience (typically 5+ years) in software engineering, with a focus on designing, building, and maintaining complex distributed systems.
- Strong expertise in applied LLMs and Agentic AI development, with a proven track record of building multi-agent systems, reasoning engines, or autonomous workflows.
- Strong proficiency with agent orchestration frameworks and advanced prompt engineering.
- Proven ability to execute on technical strategy, collaborate inclusively with cross-functional teams, and drive end-to-end development of AI-native applications.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clarify technical limitations and solutions for partner teams.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
We prefer:
- Master's or PhD in Computer Science or a related field, with a specialization in AI/ML or a related area.
- Experience developing custom tools/plugins for agents, semantic routers, and implementing complex multi-agent collaborative patterns.
- Familiarity with autonomous vehicle simulation, testing, or evaluation domains.
- Proficiency in C++ and Python, with experience building production-grade microservices and pipelines.
- Experience working with large-scale data processing, knowledge graphs, and distributed systems.
- Familiarity with Google's or Waymo's internal AI/ML platforms and infrastructure.
COMPENSATION
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.
- Salary Range: $251,000—$310,000 USD
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.
LOCATION
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
JOB TYPE
FULL-TIME
WORKING CONDITIONS
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
See All 268+ Staff Engineer Jobs in Los Angeles
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Find Staff Engineer JobsStaff Engineer Job Market in Los Angeles
Who's Hiring
- Riot Games21
- Motorola Solutions11
- Commure9
- inversion9I
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software82
- Consulting & Professional Services45
- Construction & Real Estate21
- Manufacturing19
- Media & Entertainment8
Staff Engineer Jobs in Los Angeles: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a staff engineer job in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles staff engineer roles are most active in entertainment technology, aerospace and defense, fintech, and enterprise software, with hiring concentrated in Silicon Beach, Playa Vista, El Segundo, and Downtown LA. Candidates who stand out have deep experience in distributed systems or platform infrastructure, plus familiarity with the cross-industry tech stacks common at LA's media and defense employers. Networking through local engineering meetups and communities in Santa Monica and Culver City also opens doors.
Which companies hire staff engineers in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles staff engineer roles are posted by Riot Games, Motorola Solutions, and Commure and others right now, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of June 2026. The LA market draws from a wide range of employer types, including streaming and media platforms, aerospace contractors, fintech firms, and enterprise software companies clustered from Venice to El Segundo.
Are there remote staff engineer jobs in Los Angeles?
Yes, though availability depends on the role: staff engineers in platform, backend, and data infrastructure tend to work remotely far more often than those in hardware, aerospace, or on-site production systems. About 35% of staff engineer openings tied to Los Angeles are remote or hybrid as of June 2026, with remote options most common at software and media tech companies based in Silicon Beach and Playa Vista.
How can I get a staff engineer job in Los Angeles with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path in Los Angeles is moving up through senior engineer roles at one of the city's mid-size software, fintech, or entertainment tech companies, where the staff engineer track is more accessible than at large aerospace primes. LA employers in the gaming, streaming, and e-commerce sectors regularly promote strong senior engineers internally, and contractor-to-hire roles at studios and tech-adjacent media companies offer another route into staff-level work.
Which industries hire the most staff engineers in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles staff engineer roles concentrate in Technology & Software, Consulting & Professional Services, and Construction & Real Estate, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of June 2026. LA's unique mix of entertainment, defense, and consumer technology creates consistent demand across those sectors, with media and streaming companies in Culver City and aerospace firms in El Segundo and Hawthorne driving a significant share of local openings.
Related Jobs in California
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