Machine Learning Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in California
California is the center of machine learning engineering in the United States, with major hiring concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Companies like Google, Meta, Apple, and a dense ecosystem of AI startups regularly sponsor H-1B visa and O-1 visas for ML engineers with strong research or production experience.
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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 Engineer Job Roles in California
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Search Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in CaliforniaMachine Learning Engineer Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for machine learning engineers in California?
Large technology companies are the most consistent sponsors. Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Nvidia all have significant California operations and established visa sponsorship programs for machine learning engineers. Beyond big tech, AI-focused companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI, as well as semiconductor and autonomous vehicle firms, regularly file H-1B petitions for ML roles in the state.
Which visa types are most common for machine learning engineer roles in California?
The H-1B is the most common visa category for machine learning engineers in California, given that ML roles typically require at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related field. Candidates with exceptional research records, publications, or competitive awards may qualify for the O-1A. Australians can pursue the E-3 visa as a lower-competition alternative for roles that meet specialty occupation requirements.
Which cities in California have the most machine learning engineer sponsorship jobs?
The San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose, Mountain View, Menlo Park, and San Francisco itself, accounts for the largest share of ML engineering sponsorship roles in California. Los Angeles has a growing AI and entertainment-tech sector with active hiring. San Diego also sees demand from biotech, defense contractors, and research institutions like UC San Diego that feed into commercial ML roles.
How to find machine learning engineer visa sponsorship jobs in California?
Migrate Mate filters job listings specifically by visa sponsorship availability, making it straightforward to search for machine learning engineer roles in California without sorting through positions that do not sponsor. You can filter by location and role type to surface verified sponsoring employers across the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Creating a profile on Migrate Mate also helps match your background to relevant openings.
Are there any state-specific considerations for machine learning engineers seeking sponsorship in California?
California's concentration of H-1B-dependent employers means some companies must meet additional attestation requirements under DOL rules, which can affect hiring timelines. The state's university pipeline, particularly from Stanford, UC Berkeley, Caltech, and UCLA, creates significant competition for sponsored roles. ML engineers with specialized skills in large language models, computer vision, or MLOps tend to have stronger positioning with sponsors in the current California hiring market.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored machine learning engineer 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.