Director, Systems Engineering

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 Systems Engineering team works together to blend software and hardware systems in groundbreaking new ways. We set the high performance standards that ensure our vehicles run smoothly and keep passengers safe, then design and perform the tests that validate that performance. We're looking for talented teammates who’ll help us maintain strong teamwork and are passionate about driving results.

This role follows a hybrid work schedule and reports to the Vice President of Systems Engineering.

You will:

• Lead an exemplary team of Systems Engineers to ensure the performance of the Sensing and Perception systems by specifying requirements, conducting analyses and informing architectural decisions

• Decompose critical use cases into actionable and useful requirements for individual sensors, the sensing system, and the perception system.

• Conduct analyses to determine the required performance levels of various sensing and perception tasks

• Conduct trade studies to inform architectural decisions that inform hardware and/or software architecture

• Work closely with Systems Test Engineering teams to ensure that verification strategies and results have sufficiently established that critical requirements are met

• Build and enhance the existing team

• Actively mentor individual contributors and managers to excel in their roles

• Proactively recruit, hire and on-board “best in industry” engineers to expand the team’s capabilities

• Create a team environment that allows team members to thrive personally and professionally

• Establish innovative approaches to tackle deep technical challenges in the complex hardware and software systems required for autonomous driving

• Collaborate deeply with engineering leaders across Waymo to guide Waymo’s prioritization and to refine your team’s deliverables

You have:

• 5 or more years direct management experience, with a demonstrated ability to grow and lead high performing teams

• 10 or more years engineering experience with demonstrated delivery of systems for internal or external milestones

• Bachelor's Degree in relevant Engineering or related field (including ME, EE, CS, Robotics, Controls, Aerospace, etc.) or equivalent practical experience

We prefer:

• Deep technical knowledge of state of the art ML techniques that power modern perception systems

• Deep technical knowledge of multiple sensing modalities (e.g. cameras, radar, lidar)

• Strong foundation in system engineering fundamentals such as requirements definition, formal verification and validation methods

• SW development experience (including C/C++, Python)

• 3+ years Experience managing teams from 10-50 engineers, including managing managers

Travel requirements (if applicable):

• Minimal travel required

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
$323,000—$410,000 USD