Srikanth Thirumalai

As VP of Onboard Software, Srikanth is responsible for the software stack that powers the Waymo Driver. His teams develop state-of-the-art machine learning models running on the car that power Perception, Behavior Prediction, and Motion Planning tasks. These models are distilled from larger off-board frontier models trained to understand and navigate the physical world.

With over two decades of experience leading transformative technology initiatives, Srikanth is an expert in applying machine learning to solve complex, real-world problems at scale. Srikanth previously served in various senior leadership positions at Amazon, including Vice President of Search, Alexa Shopping, and Personalization. Prior to Amazon, he worked at Akamai Technologies where he developed routing algorithms for planet-scale content delivery networks.

Srikanth received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and his B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur.

Srikanth has been recognized with a Distinguished Alumnus Award by UIUC's ECE department in 2024 for transformational leadership and significant contributions to technical innovation across multiple industries.