Senior Researcher Visa Sponsorship Jobs in California
California is one of the top states for senior researcher visa sponsorship, driven by major tech employers like Google, Meta, and Apple in Silicon Valley, biotech hubs in San Diego and the Bay Area, and world-class research universities including UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford that consistently hire internationally for advanced research roles.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
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 mission of the Waymo AI Foundations team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of safely operating Waymo vehicles in dozens of cities and under all driving conditions. As part of our work, we also initiate and foster collaborations with other research teams in Alphabet. AI Foundations areas that we are currently focusing on include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation.
This role follows a hybrid work schedule and reports to a Staff Research Scientist / Tech Lead Manager.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
You will:
- Design and implement generative world action modeling solutions to simulate future world states / observations and generate policies for embodied agents (autonomous vehicles).
- Develop and maintain scalable data pipelines to process data from multiple sources.
- Design and implement evaluation strategies for world action models.
- Study and analyze different behaviors of this model, such as scaling efficacy, downstream quality implications, model architecture design ablations, etc.
- Conduct cutting-edge research and potentially communicate research findings to the wider academic community via technical blog posts, technical reports and/or publications.
- Collaborate inclusively across Waymo/Alphabet to apply developed techniques to Waymo products.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
You have:
- PhD degree in Computer Science or a similar discipline, or an equivalent amount of deep learning research experience, with 5+ years of experience with Deep Learning and Generative Models.
- Strong coding skills in Python and strong familiarity with major ML Frameworks (JAX, Tensorflow, Pytorch).
- Strong familiarity with AI tools in day to day work.
- Experience in large-scale distributed training and different forms of parallelism.
- Experience in generative models for domains such as world models, images, videos, 3D, human animation, traffic, and/or simulation, using techniques such as diffusion and/or autoregressive models.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
We prefer:
- Publications at top-tier conferences like CVPR/ICCV/ECCV/ICLR/ICML/NeurIPS/IROS/CoRL etc.
- Substantial involvement in and contributions to high impact industry AI projects.
- First-hand experience in, and direct contributions to training large world models / world-action models.
- Familiarity with Reinforcement Learning in simulation environments.
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: $213,000—$263,000 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
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES | SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
JOB TYPE
FULL-TIME
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 mission of the Waymo AI Foundations team is to develop machine learning solutions addressing open problems in autonomous driving, towards the goal of safely operating Waymo vehicles in dozens of cities and under all driving conditions. As part of our work, we also initiate and foster collaborations with other research teams in Alphabet. AI Foundations areas that we are currently focusing on include reinforcement learning, learning from demonstration, generative modeling, Bayesian inference, hierarchical learning, and robust evaluation.
This role follows a hybrid work schedule and reports to a Staff Research Scientist / Tech Lead Manager.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
You will:
- Design and implement generative world action modeling solutions to simulate future world states / observations and generate policies for embodied agents (autonomous vehicles).
- Develop and maintain scalable data pipelines to process data from multiple sources.
- Design and implement evaluation strategies for world action models.
- Study and analyze different behaviors of this model, such as scaling efficacy, downstream quality implications, model architecture design ablations, etc.
- Conduct cutting-edge research and potentially communicate research findings to the wider academic community via technical blog posts, technical reports and/or publications.
- Collaborate inclusively across Waymo/Alphabet to apply developed techniques to Waymo products.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
You have:
- PhD degree in Computer Science or a similar discipline, or an equivalent amount of deep learning research experience, with 5+ years of experience with Deep Learning and Generative Models.
- Strong coding skills in Python and strong familiarity with major ML Frameworks (JAX, Tensorflow, Pytorch).
- Strong familiarity with AI tools in day to day work.
- Experience in large-scale distributed training and different forms of parallelism.
- Experience in generative models for domains such as world models, images, videos, 3D, human animation, traffic, and/or simulation, using techniques such as diffusion and/or autoregressive models.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
We prefer:
- Publications at top-tier conferences like CVPR/ICCV/ECCV/ICLR/ICML/NeurIPS/IROS/CoRL etc.
- Substantial involvement in and contributions to high impact industry AI projects.
- First-hand experience in, and direct contributions to training large world models / world-action models.
- Familiarity with Reinforcement Learning in simulation environments.
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: $213,000—$263,000 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
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES | SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
JOB TYPE
FULL-TIME
Senior Researcher Job Roles in California
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Search Senior Researcher Jobs in CaliforniaSenior Researcher Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies in California sponsor visas for senior researchers?
Large technology employers including Google, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft have established sponsorship programs for senior researchers across their California campuses. Biotech and pharmaceutical companies such as Genentech, Gilead Sciences, and Amgen also sponsor frequently, particularly in the Bay Area and San Diego. National laboratories including Lawrence Berkeley and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are active sponsors for research-focused roles.
Which visa types are most common for senior researcher roles in California?
The H-1B is the most common visa for senior researchers in California, given that research roles typically qualify as specialty occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree in a specific field. The O-1A is a strong alternative for researchers with publications, awards, or peer recognition. Some university-affiliated researchers may also hold J-1 visas through exchange visitor programs, and those with exceptional records sometimes pursue EB-1A or EB-2 NIW immigrant visa pathways.
Which cities in California have the most senior researcher visa sponsorship jobs?
The San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose, Mountain View, Menlo Park, and Berkeley, has the highest concentration of senior researcher sponsorship jobs, particularly in technology and life sciences. San Diego is a major hub for biotech and pharmaceutical research roles. Los Angeles also has significant activity, driven by research institutions, entertainment technology companies, and the University of California system.
How to find senior researcher visa sponsorship jobs in California?
Migrate Mate filters job listings specifically by visa sponsorship availability, making it straightforward to browse senior researcher roles in California without sorting through positions that do not offer sponsorship. Because California employers span technology, biotech, academia, and government research, using Migrate Mate to narrow by location and role helps identify which organizations are actively hiring internationally for senior researcher positions.
Are there California-specific considerations for senior researcher roles and visa sponsorship?
California employers sponsoring H-1B workers must comply with Department of Labor prevailing wage requirements, which reflect the state's generally higher cost of living and competitive compensation norms. Researchers at public universities like UC San Diego or UC Davis may encounter different sponsorship structures than those at private firms. California's strong international research community, fed by graduate programs at Stanford, Caltech, and the UC system, means employers here are generally experienced with international hiring processes.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored senior researcher 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.
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