Technical Program Manager - Onboard Systems, ML Modeling
Waymo is hiring a Technical Program Manager - Onboard Systems, ML Modeling in Mountain View and San Francisco, United States. It pays $159k-$196k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Waymo.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- The posting mentions AI evaluation, AI data labeling and computer vision among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a senior role.
- Waymo has 368 other open roles on Level.
AI in this role
Technical Program Manager leading the execution and roadmap of onboard machine learning foundation models for autonomous driving.
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:
- Drive cross-functional execution and delivery of projects within the onboard team, collaborating with engineering teams, product teams and release management
- 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, data labeling, data generation and packaging for model training
- Strong background in 3D computer vision, sensor fusion (camera, lidar), spatial reasoning, and 3D reconstruction methods (NeRF, Gaussian Splatting)
- Experience with cloud-based machine learning platforms and infrastructure
- 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, model optimization, and scaling techniques
- 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.
Salary Range$159,000—$196,000 USDHow we rate this
Technical Program Manager - Onboard Systems, ML Modeling at Waymo rates 65 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.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
- How do you keep labeling instructions consistent across a large annotation team?
- Walk me through a computer vision problem you solved, from raw data to a deployed model.
- Tell me about a project where 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?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Evaluation, AI Data Labeling, Computer vision, Program Management, and Cross Functional Leadership. 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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