Machine Learning Visa Sponsorship Jobs in California
California is the top state for machine learning visa sponsorship jobs, with major employers including Google, Meta, Apple, and NVIDIA headquartered here. The San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles drive most hiring, alongside a deep university pipeline from Stanford and UC Berkeley feeding world-class ML research and engineering talent into industry.
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Get Access To All JobsLOCATION: Mountain View, California, United States
JOB TYPE: Full-time
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 Compute Team is tasked with a critical and exciting mission: We deliver the compute platform responsible for running the fully autonomous vehicle’s software stack. To achieve our mission, we architect and create high-performance custom silicon; we develop system-level compute architectures that push the boundaries of performance, power, and latency; and we collaborate closely with many other teammates to ensure we design and optimize hardware and software for maximum performance. We are a multidisciplinary team seeking curious and talented teammates to work on one of the world’s highest performance automotive compute platforms.
This role follows a hybrid work schedule and you will report to the Senior Staff Silicon Engineer.
YOUR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Work with researchers and architects to translate high level requirements into hardware features
- Specify and design microarchitectures to deliver world class ML performance
- Perform power, area and performance exploration and optimization of digital designs
- Design high performance execution units, arithmetic circuits and programmable engines
- Work with verification teams to guarantee functional correctness and performance
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- BS degree in Computer Engineering or equivalent practical experience
- 5+ years of industry experience with SystemVerilog, RTL design and microarchitecture
- 3+ years designing and specifying microarchitectures of high performance computing cores (CPU/GPU/NPU)
- Fluency in at least one high level programming language such as Python, C++
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience designing datapath elements of high performance cores (CPU/GPU/NPU)
- Experience working with Chisel (Scala) or other higher-level hardware DSLs
- Working knowledge of machine learning algorithms & how they map to hardware
- Familiarity with Synthesis and power analysis tools
- Experience working with formal tools for datapath verification
COMPENSATION
- Salary Range: $175,000—$215,000 USD
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.
LOCATION: Mountain View, California, United States
JOB TYPE: Full-time
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 Compute Team is tasked with a critical and exciting mission: We deliver the compute platform responsible for running the fully autonomous vehicle’s software stack. To achieve our mission, we architect and create high-performance custom silicon; we develop system-level compute architectures that push the boundaries of performance, power, and latency; and we collaborate closely with many other teammates to ensure we design and optimize hardware and software for maximum performance. We are a multidisciplinary team seeking curious and talented teammates to work on one of the world’s highest performance automotive compute platforms.
This role follows a hybrid work schedule and you will report to the Senior Staff Silicon Engineer.
YOUR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Work with researchers and architects to translate high level requirements into hardware features
- Specify and design microarchitectures to deliver world class ML performance
- Perform power, area and performance exploration and optimization of digital designs
- Design high performance execution units, arithmetic circuits and programmable engines
- Work with verification teams to guarantee functional correctness and performance
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- BS degree in Computer Engineering or equivalent practical experience
- 5+ years of industry experience with SystemVerilog, RTL design and microarchitecture
- 3+ years designing and specifying microarchitectures of high performance computing cores (CPU/GPU/NPU)
- Fluency in at least one high level programming language such as Python, C++
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience designing datapath elements of high performance cores (CPU/GPU/NPU)
- Experience working with Chisel (Scala) or other higher-level hardware DSLs
- Working knowledge of machine learning algorithms & how they map to hardware
- Familiarity with Synthesis and power analysis tools
- Experience working with formal tools for datapath verification
COMPENSATION
- Salary Range: $175,000—$215,000 USD
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.
Machine Learning Job Roles in California
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Search Machine Learning Jobs in CaliforniaMachine Learning Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for machine learning roles in California?
The most active sponsors for machine learning roles in California include Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, Salesforce, and Adobe, concentrated primarily in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Semiconductor and AI chip companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm also file significant numbers of sponsorships. Mid-size AI startups in San Francisco and Palo Alto round out the sponsoring employer base for ML engineers and researchers.
Which visa types are most common for machine learning roles in California?
The H-1B visa is by far the most common visa for machine learning roles in California, as ML engineering and research positions typically meet the specialty occupation requirement. Candidates with extraordinary recognition in the field may qualify for the O-1A. Australian citizens can use the E-3 visa as an H-1B alternative. Some roles at universities or national labs may fall under J-1 visa or F-1 OPT, particularly for recent graduates.
Which cities in California have the most machine learning sponsorship jobs?
The San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Francisco itself, accounts for the majority of machine learning sponsorship jobs in California. Los Angeles has grown substantially, driven by entertainment technology, healthcare AI, and a strong startup ecosystem. San Diego also contributes, particularly through biotech and defense-adjacent AI applications at companies like Qualcomm.
How to find machine learning visa sponsorship jobs in California?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for international job seekers targeting visa sponsorship roles, including machine learning positions across California. You can filter by state and role to surface employers with a documented history of sponsoring ML engineers and researchers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and beyond. Because sponsorship willingness varies widely by employer and role type, focusing on verified sponsors saves significant time in a competitive field.
Are there any California-specific considerations for machine learning visa sponsorship?
California's high cost of living means H-1B prevailing wage requirements in cities like San Francisco and San Jose sit at the upper end of national ranges for machine learning roles, which can actually work in candidates' favor since employers must meet those wage floors. The state's dense concentration of AI-focused companies and proximity to Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA also creates a university-to-industry pipeline that keeps sponsorship activity consistently high compared to most other states.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored machine learning jobs in California?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.