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 People team recruits and supports the world’s best talent (including, we hope, you). Our HR business partners, program administrators, staffers, and compensation specialists help our employees attain their full potential in a healthy, considerate and supportive environment.
In this hybrid role, you will report to the Head of Onboard Engineering Recruiting.
You will:
- Partner directly with research and technical staff to define hiring priorities, shape search strategies, and anticipate future talent needs as technical roadmaps evolve.
- Proactively identify and cultivate exceptional AI/ML research talent across industry, academia, and emerging labs, often before formal hiring needs exist.
- Perform recruiting analyses and talent assessments to determine how best to optimize your search strategy and overall hiring productivity, making adjustments to strategy as appropriate.
- Use market insights and candidate signals to influence hiring decisions, leveling, and compensation strategy for highly specialized research roles.
- Extend, negotiate and close offers, including making recommendations to hiring managers and champ callers on offer close strategy.
You have:
- Significant experience recruiting for highly technical, senior, executive, or otherwise specialized talent
- Strong judgment and discretion in handling sensitive candidate conversations and confidential searches
- A real instinct for talent intelligence: you know how to gather market context, read between the lines, and turn incomplete information into useful action.
- Track record of building relationships with hard-to-reach candidates who are not actively looking or who require a highly personalized process
- Experience partnering closely with senior leaders and influencing recruiting strategy in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
- Comfort operating in fast-moving environments where hiring priorities and role definitions may evolve over time.
We prefer:
- Experience recruiting within highly technical or specialized environments such as ML/AI, distributed systems, infrastructure, scientific computing, or quantitative research. Track record of leading complex, ambiguous technical searches from early talent mapping through close.
- Deep interest in AI research, Deep Learning, and ML technical talent markets, and the broader ecosystem of labs, companies, and people shaping the frontier
- Experience navigating high-stakes negotiations with senior technical or research candidates.
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.
Skills Required
- Significant experience recruiting highly technical, senior, executive, or otherwise specialized talent
- Strong judgment and discretion handling sensitive candidate conversations and confidential searches
- Ability to gather market context and perform talent intelligence to inform search strategy
- Track record building relationships with passive, hard-to-reach candidates
- Experience partnering closely with senior leaders and influencing recruiting strategy
- Comfort operating in fast-moving environments where hiring priorities and role definitions may evolve
- Experience recruiting within ML/AI, distributed systems, infrastructure, scientific computing, or quantitative research
- Deep interest in AI research, Deep Learning, and ML talent markets
- Experience navigating high-stakes negotiations with senior technical or research candidates
Waymo Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Waymo and has not been reviewed or approved by Waymo.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered strong for full‑time technical roles, aligning with top‑tier AV/Big Tech benchmarks. Employer materials also emphasize competitive pay with eligibility for bonuses and equity as part of total rewards.
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Healthcare Strength — Coverage spans medical, dental, vision, mental‑health resources, onsite wellness centers, and counseling, with specialized programs such as menopause and transgender medical advocacy. Dependents are included, indicating depth across core health needs.
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Parental & Family Support — Offerings include fertility and family‑forming assistance, parental and baby‑bonding leave, caregiver and elder‑care support, and backup childcare. These programs are positioned to support families through multiple life stages.
Waymo Insights
What We Do
Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around. With the Waymo Driver, we can improve the world’s mobility while saving thousands of lives. Waymo reaches out to candidates from official channels only (e.g. directly from @waymo.com email addresses, or through our recruiters or sourcers who are noted as such on LinkedIn). We do not contact candidates about career opportunities through instant messaging apps like Telegram, email addresses from domains other than waymo.com (such as Gmail addresses), direct messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or text messages. Visit waymo.com to check out our official job listings.
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