Autonomous vehicle operational management may include traversing, by an autonomous vehicle, a vehicle transportation network. Traversing the vehicle transportation network may include receiving, froma sensor of the autonomous vehicle, sensor information corresponding to an external object within a defined distance of the autonomous vehicle, identifying a distinct vehicle operational scenario in response to receiving the sensor information, instantiating a scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance, wherein the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance is an instance of a scenario-specific operational control evaluation module modeling the distinct vehicle operational scenario, receiving a candidate vehicle control action from the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance, and traversing a portion of the vehicle transportation network based on the candidate vehicle control action.