Waabi is hiring a Research Scientist in Toronto!
Waabi is hiring a Research Scientist to join the Behaviors team in Toronto, the group responsible for the simulation agents and scenario-generation algorithms inside Waabi World, the company's autonomous-driving simulation platform. The role is deeply research-oriented but production-facing: the models you build determine which scenarios stress-test the self-driving stack, supply the training signal that improves it, and underpin the scientific safety case used to justify deploying trucks and robotaxis on public roads. You would set your own research agenda around controllable, realistic simulated agents while working alongside simulation, autonomy, and safety specialists to turn prototypes into shipped systems. The position also carries a mentorship component and an expectation of publishing at top-tier ML and robotics venues, so it suits someone who wants both academic visibility and direct impact on a commercial autonomous vehicle program.
Key responsibilities
- Define and drive an independent research agenda on realistic, controllable simulation agents
- Push the state of the art in imitation learning, reinforcement learning, generative and foundation models, planning, and search as applied to simulated agents
- Partner with simulation, autonomy, and safety teams to scope high-impact problems and move solutions into production against company milestones
- Mentor junior scientists and interns and promote rigorous, fast-iteration experimentation
- Publish research at leading machine learning and robotics conferences
Key requirements
- Master's or PhD in machine learning, computer science, engineering, or a closely related discipline
- Strong grounding in imitation learning and/or reinforcement learning
- A track record of publications at top-tier ML or robotics conferences and journals
- Hands-on proficiency with modern frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Jax
- Seniority: Senior individual contributor (Research Scientist); PhD-level, with mentoring expectations
- Work mode: Not specified (Toronto office; other Waabi sites in San Francisco, Dallas, Pittsburgh)
- Key skills: imitation learning, reinforcement learning, generative models, foundation models, planning and search, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Jax, traffic simulation, autonomous driving, large-scale training, mentoring, research publications
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