Technical Program Manager, Foundation Models

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the 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 One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, and can also be applied to a range of vehicle platforms and product use cases. The Waymo Driver has provided over one million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions in simulation across 13+ U.S. states.

Waymo’s Technical 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:

• Drive cross-functional execution and delivery of projects within the Waymo Foundation Model program, collaborating with engineering teams
• Manage project schedules, identify risks and dependencies, and develop mitigation strategies
• Facilitate communication and collaboration between engineering, research, and product teams, ensuring alignment on program goals, milestones, and technical requirements
• Track and report on project/program progress, risks, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to leadership and stakeholders
• Contribute to the strategic planning, objective setting, and technical roadmap for the Waymo Foundation Model program
• Proactively identify and resolve roadblocks and dependencies, coordinating across organizational boundaries

You have:

• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of experience as a Technical Program Manager in a software engineering environment
• A proven track record of successfully managing complex technical projects involving machine learning and/or AI
• Experience with machine learning models, training pipelines, or evaluation frameworks
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, effectively conveying technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and technical judgment skills

We prefer:

• Experience with large language models (LLMs), vision language models, generative AI (diffusion models), large-scale model training, optimization, and scaling techniques
• Experience with cloud-based machine learning platforms and infrastructure
• Strong background in 3D computer vision, sensor fusion (camera, lidar), spatial reasoning, and 3D reconstruction methods (NeRF, Gaussian Splatting)
• Experience with simulation environments for autonomous systems, model validation strategies, and methods to ensure model reliability
• Experience with model evaluation techniques, metrics, time-series analysis, and predictive modeling using sensor data
• Master's degree or PhD in a related field

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.