Jobs / United States / Waymo LLC
Lead Program Manager - New Platform Validation Operations
Waymo LLC · 🇺🇸 Mountain View, California, USA; San Francisco, California, USA;
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 290 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 87 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- What Waymo LLC paid sponsored hires in similar roles1 certified filing for “Regional Validation Program Manager” (Project Management Specialists) in DC: $169k–$169k, median $169k. Most were filed at wage level IV (100%) — 4 lottery entries, ≈61% projected selection odds for cap-subject employers. Source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure data (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026).
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
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Sponsor Radar — Waymo LLC
The US Department of Labor certified 290 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 87 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Waymo LLC →
About the role
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 Operations exists to deliver the Waymo Driver to the world. We are a global team building and scaling the world's first and leading autonomous fleet and operations platform. From component sourcing to end customer management, we enable and create value for Waymo through scaled and orchestrated deployment of the Waymo Driver. At Waymo, we are dedicated to building a culture that promotes collaboration and celebration. We value our team members' unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences and support and encourage all team members to share their ideas to help Waymo better serve the communities in which we operate. In this hybrid role, you will report to a Head of Validation Operations You will: • Lead NPI Platform Program Execution: Drive end-to-end program structuring for onboarding new platform variants into validation fleets, managing the critical path from arrival and upfit to testing and fleet deployment. • Executive Stakeholder Management & Influence: Serve as the primary operational partner to cross-functional leadership (Engineering, Product, Supply Chain, Safety), actively aligning dependencies, pushing back when necessary, and driving high-level decisions. • Hands-on Operational Problem Solving: Bridge high-level program strategy with ground-level realities, stepping directly into depot/field operations as needed to unblock issues and validate processes. • Align Planning with Execution: Spearhead operating plans that reconcile demand forecasts with field realities, dynamically adjusting for real-time vehicle online rates, upfit throughput, and operator constraints. • Executive Reporting & Visibility: Formulate, automate, and present executive dashboards and operating metrics, effectively communicating operational readiness, program risks, and fleet bottlenecks to senior leadership. • Optimize Fleet Efficiency & Yield: Partner cross-functionally to build capacity and forecasting frameworks that maximize validation yield and streamline vendor operational workflows. You have: • Operational & Program Leadership: 7–10+ years of experience leading complex technical programs or physical operations, with a proven ability to structure ambiguous initiatives from concept to execution. • Executive Presence & Communication: Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders, communicate trade-offs clearly to executive leadership, and manage high-stakes cross-functional relationships. • Hands-on / "Scrappy" Mindset: Willingness to engage directly with ground-level depot workflows and physical hardware when technical roadblocks require operational triage. • Cross-Functional Orchestration: Proven track record aligning cross-functional teams (Engineering, Product, Supply Chain, Safety, Legal) across shifting timelines and competing priorities. We prefer: • Hardware / NPI Testing Experience: Direct experience launching or validating automotive, autonomous vehicle, or robotics hardware platforms. • Vendor & Field Operations: Experience managing third-party vendor operations, staffing models, or depot operations. Travel Re