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Staff Technical Program Manager, Commercialization at Waymo (Mountain View, CA / San Francisco, CA)

Waymo· Mountain View, CA / San Francisco, CA· $230k–$284k·

Role details

Salary
$230k–$284k
Level
Staff

Job description

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 Technical Program Managers and Program Managers are accountable for Waymo’s roadmap execution by providing thoughtful cross-functional planning, clarity, and proactive risk management. In the face of complex technical and operational challenges with no established playbooks to follow, we act with thoughtful urgency, driving conversations, discussions, and outcomes. Our team partners closely with every function of Waymo to structure, own and drive work towards real-world deployments of the Waymo Driver across platforms and geographies.

You will:

  • Lead critical programs focused on improving the rider journey and customer experiences across Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Operations.
  • Establish and define key quality metrics and frameworks to track and continuously improve the rider experience across all operating markets.
  • Drive strategic initiatives to proactively identify, prioritize, and manage dependencies and risks.
  • Align stakeholders across the organization and represent the programs to executive leadership to remove blockers and drive accountability.
  • Apply strong technical judgment to evaluate system trade-offs, improve scalability, and ensure delivery quality.
  • Manage program roadmaps, portfolio prioritization, and resource allocation to ensure timely delivery and success of core business outcomes.

You have:

  • 7+ years of experience managing highly complex cross-functional programs with a holistic understanding of business-wide functions (e.g. Product, Eng, Operations, etc).
  • Demonstrated experience delivering commercial, consumer-facing software products.
  • Proven track record of driving large-scale, ambiguous technical programs end-to-end, managing cross-functional dependencies, timelines, and risks across multiple stakeholders.
  • Strong technical background with the ability to engage credibly in technical design discussion with engineering and evaluate technical trade-offs.
  • Aptitude for analyzing disparate data points and metrics into structured priorities and actionable burndown paths to drive incremental, measurable quality gains.
  • Exceptional communication and leadership skills with demonstrated ability to align diverse cross-functional teams and influence executive leadership.

We prefer:

  • Expertise with complex technical systems that bridge software with physical operations.
  • Experience in rideshare, two-sided marketplaces, or products where consumer software interacts directly with physical operations.
  • Familiarity working with large datasets, metrics, or reliability / quality engineering frameworks to diagnose system issues.

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.

Salary Range $230,000—$284,000 USD

Why work at Waymo

  • Impact: Work on technology that directly saves lives (1.4M traffic deaths globally each year) and reshapes the future of transportation.
  • Culture: Waymo describes itself as a place for “ambitious thinkers and relentless problem solvers” with a deep respect for getting every detail right. Values include safety, innovation, and responsibility.
  • Teams: Opportunities across Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, AI Foundations, Product & Design, Operations & Supply Chain, Safety, Policy, and General & Administrative roles.
  • Internships: Strong early-career program with internships for Bachelors, Masters, MBA, and PhD candidates, often leading to full-time offers.
  • Hiring process: Transparent and structured. Includes an initial recruiter screen, 1-2 phone/video interviews, and a virtual onsite (up to 5 interviews). Emphasizes problem-solving, collaboration, and real-time thinking. AI tools are not permitted during technical assessments to ensure fair evaluation.
  • Remote/hybrid policy: The careers page lists both on-site and remote roles, with most engineering and operations roles based in Mountain View, San Francisco, or other US locations.
  • Benefits: Top-notch benefits, unique learning opportunities, thoughtful community engagement, and meaningful gatherings. Specific perks are not detailed publicly but are described as comprehensive.

Application questions