Technical Program Manager, Release
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. Since our start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has been focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World’s Most Experienced Driver™—to improve everyone's access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. Our Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, our fully autonomous ride-hailing service, as well as Waymo Via, our trucking and local delivery service. To date, Waymo has driven over 20 million miles autonomously on public roads across 25 U.S. cities and conducted over 20 billion miles of simulation testing.
At Waymo, we are mission-driven and believe deeply in the opportunity of autonomous driving technology to improve mobility and make people's lives better. We are united by purpose and responsibility (for our employees and riders alike). We are looking for kind, committed, employees who have integrity, dream big, work together as one team and create a sense of belonging for one another that is the foundation of our culture. We want each team member to feel welcomed and included in every step of our exciting journey.
Waymo is looking for a Release Manager for its onboard (on-vehicle) software. Waymo aims to improve people’s lives by transforming mobility and making it easier and safer for everyone to get around, regardless of their ability to drive. So far, we have pushed over 100 software releases to our safety-driver operated test fleet and started driverless-fleet releases in 2017. The onboard release team’s responsibility is to vet onboard software installed on our testing fleets to support safe operations and a fast development cycle.
Describe the day-to-day activities and responsibilities:
- Manage daily build checks, pre-push onboard release testing, logistics, communication, and documentation. This involves coordination with multiple Waymo teams (driving operations, software quality operations, software, hardware, offboard, and systems engineers, customer experience, product)
- Evaluate risk of issues affecting upcoming onboard releases, as well as risk of proposed fixes; perform change control
- Manage release branch creation and investigate and address integration, build, and other technical issues.
- Find ways to optimize and accelerate existing processes and procedures, develop new ones in order to support Waymo’s evolving program goals (includes identifying and managing dependencies on hardware, firmware, changing regulatory landscape), scaling the release vetting process to multiple platforms and hardware versions, multiple locations, new road types, and weather conditions
- Ensure documentation is known and used and/or adopted by others to make a project or program repeatable and scalable
Required minimum experience:
- BA/BS degree in Computer Science, technical field or equivalent practical experience.
- 1+ years of experience as a release manager, or 3+ years as test engineer or TPM/PgM with equivalent responsibilities
- Ability to recognize technical dependencies in projects across the org and to identify technical issues and understand how to resolve them
- Ability to manage and prioritize a program that spans multiple projects, services or organizations
- Ability to supplement effective project management with analytical, technical and leadership skills to deliver complex projects and manage the relationships among them.
Preferred experience:
- Experience mentoring others to assist in key projects
- An expert understanding of the software development lifecycle
While at Waymo, you will enjoy benefits that cover…
Health and wellness: Our people are at the heart of everything we do. At Waymo, you can enjoy top-notch medical, dental and vision insurance, mental wellness support, a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), a Health Saving Account (HSA), on-site physicians and/or nurses in some locations, and special wellness programs.
Financial wellness: Your financial peace of mind is important to us. At Waymo, we offer competitive compensation, bonus opportunities, equity, a generous 401(k) plan or regional retirement plans, 1-on-1 financial coaching, a 529 College Savings Plan and lots of other perks and employee discounts.
Flexibility and time off: Take the time you need to relax and recharge. Enjoy the flexibility to work from another location for four weeks per year. We support an on-site, hybrid work model and offer remote working opportunities, paid time off, Waymo recharge days, bereavement, sick, and parental leave.
Supporting families: When it comes to growing your family or caring for your loved ones, you have our full support. Enhanced leave options include paid parental leave (birthing parent gets 24 weeks of paid leave, and non-birthing parent gets 18 weeks of paid leave), and 20 subsidized days of backup childcare or adult/elder care. Access to fertility care or adoption support as you grow your family.
Community and personal development: At Waymo, you’ll find a range of opportunities to grow, connect, and give back. We offer education tuition reimbursement, personal and professional development, mentorship, and other ways to connect through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), other internal groups, and even time off to volunteer.
Cool perks: Access to Google offices, cafes, wellness centers, personal training sessions, massages, haircuts, bike repairs, office transportation, commuter benefits and so much more. To support your wellbeing at home, you can enjoy at-home fitness and cooking classes, and more.
* Please note that while our benefits philosophy is the same in every place Waymonauts work, benefits may vary by office/country and are subject to eligibility requirements.