Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery Standards, Processes, & Quality
Waymo · Mountain View, CA
- On site
- Full-time
- $177,500 / year
- Mountain View, CA
✓ Hiring manager found for this role
Email the hiring manager to get a response.
Get their verified email + an intro that's ready to send.
Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery Standards, Processes, & Quality
Waymo · Mountain View, CA
Taylor Morgan
Hiring Manager · h•••••@careers.withwaymo.com
✍️ Your intro emailReady to send
Subject: Interested in the Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery Standards, Processes, & Quality role at Waymo
Hi Taylor — I came across the Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery Standards, Processes, & Quality opening and wanted to reach out directly. I've spent the last few years doing exactly this kind of work, and Waymo stood out because…
🔒 Unlock to read & send
✎ Personalized to your résumé after sign-up.
$1 once
Just this hiring manager
Best value
$9/mo
Unlimited — any job, anywhere
- ✓ Verified email of the hiring manager
- ✓ Intro email personalized to your résumé
- ✓ $9/mo = unlimited — any job link
Secure checkout · cancel anytime
View the original posting ↗
Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back.
Job highlights
- Manage safe vehicle recovery operations and logistics.
- Ensure operational readiness for commercial launch.
- Resolve bottlenecks and manage escalations.
- Liaise with authorities and stakeholders.
- Drive product feedback from regional data.
About the role
About Waymo
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.Role Overview
The Vehicle Recovery, Safety & Logistics Lead is a critical operational leadership role responsible for ensuring the safe, efficient, and disciplined management of vehicle recovery operations, market safety oversight, and operational logistics within a Waymo market. As Waymo scales both Waymo Owned & Operated (O&O) and Partner markets, this role ensures that recovery procedures, safety standards, and vehicle logistics are consistently executed to maintain fleet availability, protect operational integrity, and reinforce Waymo’s commitment to safety. Operating within Market Operations, this leader serves as the market’s safety champion, ensuring that vehicle recovery activities, incident response coordination, and operational logistics are managed with discipline and aligned with Waymo’s Safety Management System (SMS) and operational expectations. The role also plays a key coordination function across partners, vendors, depot teams, and centralized operations to ensure incidents are resolved quickly, vehicle movement is optimized, and operational disruptions are minimized. This role requires strong operational judgment, safety leadership, and real-time coordination capability, enabling the market to maintain high service reliability while managing the complexities of autonomous fleet operations.What You'll Do
- Global-to-Local Orchestration: Build with central teams and track operational metrics for safe vehicle recovery operations. Lead daily stand-ups between engineering and local ops to sync international infrastructure with vehicle deployment schedules.
- Operational Readiness: Direct the integration of depot logistics and "Day 1" playbooks to ensure all cross-functional teams are prepared for commercial launch.
- Rapid Bottleneck Resolution: Act as the primary escalation point for internal teams and regulatory agencies to bypass hurdles and keep launch timelines on track.
- Strategic Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain relationships with transit authorities and emergency services to ensure safe community integration and positive public perception.
- Product Feedback Loop: Translate regional infrastructure data and community dynamics into actionable feature requests for the central product roadmap.
- Risk & Compliance Oversight: Audit operational logs and identify market-specific threats to ensure 100% adherence to municipal permit requirements.
What You'll Need
- Industry Tenure: A minimum of 7+ years of professional experience within safety-critical transportation workflows, autonomous driving, aviation, or high-stakes logistics sectors.
- Safety Expertise: Proven mastery of Safety Management Systems (SMS) with a track record of maintaining rigorous regulatory and operational standards.
- Incident Management: Demonstrated ability to manage real-time incident response and complex vehicle movements in diverse, high-pressure environments.
- Vendor Quality Oversight: Concrete experience in vendor management, specifically overseeing multi-third-party vendor ecosystems in transportation while maintaining strict cost efficiency.
- Data Proficiency: Strong analytical skills with the ability to monitor recovery trends and utilize data to measurably improve fleet availability.
- Cross-Functional Communication: Expert-level communication skills capable of seamlessly coordinating technical requirements between centralized operations and local field teams.
We Prefer
- Performance Dashboards & KPIs: Proficiency in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker) to design and monitor automated partner performance dashboards, tracking critical metrics such as response times, cost-per-recovery, and SLA compliance to drive data-backed accountability.
- Advanced degree: A Master’s degree in Business Administration, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or Supply Chain Management provides a deeper theoretical framework for complex deployments.
- Regulatory Liaison Experience: Prior success in directly negotiating with state or municipal DOTs and navigating the nuances of autonomous vehicle permitting.
- Project Management Certification: Possession of a PMP or Six Sigma Black Belt to bring a standardized, disciplined approach to rapid market scaling.
- Crisis Communication Training: Formal experience in public relations or emergency response communication, particularly in high-visibility technology sectors.
Travel
20%Salary Range
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. $159,000—$196,000 USDKey skills/competency
- Program Management
- Vehicle Recovery
- Safety Standards
- Operational Logistics
- Autonomous Driving
- Incident Management
- Vendor Management
- Data Analysis
- Cross-Functional Communication
- Regulatory Compliance
Skills & topics
- Program Manager
- Vehicle Recovery
- Autonomous Driving
- Logistics
- Safety Management
- Operations
- Transportation
- Quality Assurance
- Process Improvement
- Risk Management
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight 7+ years in safety-critical transportation or logistics, emphasizing SMS expertise.
- Showcase incident management: Detail experience with real-time response and complex vehicle movements.
- Demonstrate vendor oversight: Provide examples of managing third-party transportation vendors.
- Quantify data skills: Include achievements in using data to improve fleet availability.
- Prepare for behavioral questions: Be ready to discuss stakeholder management and cross-functional coordination.
Technical preparation
Master Safety Management Systems (SMS) principles.,Practice real-time incident response protocols.,Analyze transportation vendor performance data.,Develop KPIs for recovery and logistics.
Behavioral questions
Describe managing a high-pressure incident.,How do you build cross-functional relationships?,Share an example of optimizing logistics.,How do you ensure regulatory compliance?
Prefer to apply the usual way?
Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back. Email the hiring manager first.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Waymo Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery role about?
- The Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery, Standards, Processes, & Quality role at Waymo is a leadership position focused on ensuring safe and efficient vehicle recovery operations, market safety oversight, and logistics management. This role is crucial for scaling Waymo's autonomous fleet operations while maintaining high standards of safety and reliability.
- What qualifications are essential for the Waymo Program Manager position?
- Essential qualifications include at least 7 years of professional experience in safety-critical transportation, autonomous driving, aviation, or logistics. A proven mastery of Safety Management Systems (SMS), strong incident management skills, vendor quality oversight experience, data proficiency, and expert-level cross-functional communication are also required for this Waymo Program Manager role.
- What are the preferred qualifications for this Waymo job?
- Preferred qualifications for the Waymo Program Manager role include proficiency with data visualization tools like Tableau or Looker, an advanced degree in a relevant field, experience as a regulatory liaison, a Project Management Certification (PMP or Six Sigma Black Belt), and formal crisis communication training.
- What is the salary range for the Program Manager at Waymo?
- The expected base salary range for the Program Manager - Vehicle Recovery, Standards, Processes, & Quality position at Waymo is $159,000 to $196,000 USD annually. Actual compensation will depend on factors such as location, experience, and skills. Waymo also offers a discretionary bonus, equity, and benefits.
- What is the work arrangement for this Waymo role?
- This position requires approximately 20% travel, indicating a hybrid or potentially on-site work arrangement with regular travel to Waymo markets. Specific details about the primary work location and any remote flexibility would be discussed during the hiring process.
- How does Waymo ensure safety in its vehicle recovery processes?
- Waymo emphasizes safety through its Safety Management System (SMS) and rigorous operational standards. The Program Manager plays a key role as a safety champion, overseeing vehicle recovery activities, incident response, and logistics to align with these stringent safety protocols and regulatory expectations.
- What kind of stakeholders will the Program Manager interact with at Waymo?
Similar roles
Open positions we recommend based on this role.