Senior Staff Technical Program Manager, New Product Programs
Waymo is hiring a Senior Staff Technical Program Manager, New Product Programs in Mountain View and San Francisco, United States. It pays $272k-$336k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Waymo.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Some of the work can be done remotely, according to the posting.
- The posting mentions technical program management, cross functional leadership and autonomous systems among its tools and skills.
- Waymo has 369 other open roles on Level.
- Posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
Architect and lead complex cross-functional technical programs for autonomous driving new product initiatives.
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 Commercialization & Strategic PMO Technical Program Managers are accountable for delivering Waymo's commercial business lines, platform expansion, and strategic new initiatives. We provide thoughtful cross-functional planning, clarity, and proactive risk management. When a new product has no established playbook, we act with thoughtful urgency to structure the work, drive decisions, and align teams across organizations. We partner closely with Product, Engineering, Hardware, Safety, Legal, and Operations to take new initiatives from early concept to real-world launch.
This role follows a hybrid work schedule, and you will report to the Director of Technical Program Management, Commercialization & Strategic PMO.
You will:
- Architect and lead the holistic, cross-organizational technical program for Waymo's New Product Programs initiatives
- Own and drive the end-to-end program structure, work breakdown, and master schedule across pillars, delegating sub-projects across domain TPMs while retaining accountability for the holistic program and its interdependencies.
- Serve as a strategic technical partner to Product and Engineering leadership across TaaS, Fleet & Operations, Onboard Autonomy, Hardware, and Systems/Safety Engineering
- Simplify interfaces across organizational boundaries by establishing scalable operating frameworks, cross-org structures, and readiness playbooks.
- Occasional travel between Bay Area offices, test facilities/depots, OEM partner sites, or expansion markets, about one week per quarter (~10%).
You have:
- 10+ years of experience leading transformational, multi-organization technical programs from 0-to-1 conception through public launch and scaled operations across hardware, embedded/onboard software, cloud/mobile platforms, and physical operations.
- Demonstrated technical judgment equivalent to a senior/staff practicing engineer (L5+ SWE): ability to influence strategic technical direction, evaluate complex system architectures across onboard and offboard stacks, and broker high-stakes velocity vs. quality decisions.
- A proven track record of structuring ambiguous, company-level initiatives into unambiguous work breakdowns, milestones, and accountability frameworks while managing a portfolio of interdependent workstreams and guiding other TPMs.
- Deep experience in resource management, capacity forecasting, and financial/unit-economics modeling across large distributed engineering organizations (100+ engineers) without direct line authority.
- Experience navigating safety-critical, regulated, or hardware-software integrated consumer products where product readiness, verification & validation (V&V), and field operations must converge on strict release cadences.
- Exceptional executive presence and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to influence VP/C-level leadership, align multidisciplinary leads (Engineering, Product, Legal, Safety, Operations, OEM Partnerships), and drive organizational change.
We prefer:
- Experience in autonomous vehicles, automotive OEM platform programs, robotics, aerospace, or complex consumer hardware-software ecosystems with long hardware freeze lead times.
- A track record of taking a net-new business line or incubation program inside a scaled technology company from early prototype/fishfood to external customer pilot and commercial agreement.
- Familiarity with automotive regulatory and homologation frameworks (DMV, CPUC, NHTSA, FMVSS, multi-stage manufacturing), consumer auto insurance/underwriting, or physical fleet/depot operations.
- Experience mentoring, coordinating, and scaling a cohort of Technical Program Managers across multiple functional pillars (e.g., Onboard, Cloud/Mobile, Fleet, Release/Safety).
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$272,000—$336,000 USDHow we rate this
Senior Staff Technical Program Manager, New Product Programs at Waymo rates 60 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
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Skills and AI tools this role asks for
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- Tell me about a project where technical program management was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where cross functional leadership was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where autonomous systems was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where hardware integration was part of your work. What did you do?
- Describe a typical day in a role like this one: which parts run through AI directly?
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- List these exact terms on your resume: Technical Program Management, Cross Functional Leadership, Autonomous Systems, and Hardware Integration. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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