Senior Manager, Product Data Science

About the role

Waymo seeks a Senior Manager, Product Data Science to define and drive the vision for a high-impact team focused on maximizing the potential of the Waymo Driver through advanced data science. In this role, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of product data science initiatives, translating complex operational and market data into actionable strategies that enhance the performance and scalability of Waymo's self-driving technology. You will act as a critical bridge between data science, product, and operations, ensuring that analytical insights directly inform key business and engineering decisions. The position requires a data-driven, curious mindset capable of rapidly adapting to new information and ambiguous challenges. You will be responsible for leading cross-functional alignment to ensure that data science efforts support Waymo's mission of building the world's most trusted driver while improving mobility and safety on a global scale.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and articulate a clear product data science vision that aligns with Waymo's overarching mission of scaling the Waymo Driver safely and efficiently.

Lead the full lifecycle management of data science projects, from initial hypothesis and data exploration through model development, validation, and deployment.

Analyze high-volume operational and vehicle telemetry data to uncover insights that improve Waymo Driver decision-making, safety, and operational reliability.

Evaluate and integrate new data sources and analytical methods to support geographic expansion and continuous freedom of operation in diverse environments.

Partner closely with senior leadership to translate business objectives into data-driven roadmaps and measurable success metrics.

Champion cross-functional collaboration between product, engineering, operations, and strategy teams to ensure alignment on priorities and outcomes.

Design and manage experiments that test product changes, using statistical methods to assess impact on rider experience and system performance.

Own the development and maintenance of key data products and dashboards that provide real-time visibility into driver performance and fleet operations.

Mentor and develop a team of Product Data Scientists and Data Analysts, fostering a culture of rigorous analysis, curiosity, and clear communication.

Establish best practices for data governance, model documentation, and reproducibility to support long-term scalability and regulatory compliance.

Identify opportunities to automate analytical workflows, reducing manual effort and increasing the team's capacity for high-impact work.

Translate complex analytical findings into concise narratives and visualizations that inform executive decision-making and stakeholder buy-in.

Monitor external market trends and competitor activities to guide product positioning and feature investment priorities.

Ensure all data science initiatives adhere to Waymo's strict safety and operational standards, maintaining public trust and regulatory alignment.

Requirements

Candidates must possess a Bachelor's degree or higher in a quantitative field such as Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related discipline.

You must have 12+ years of relevant professional experience in data science, machine learning, or a closely related technical domain.

You must have 5+ years of experience managing and leading a team of data scientists and/or data analysts.

You must have 5+ years of hands-on experience developing, deploying, and experimenting with machine learning models in production environments.

You must demonstrate strong statistical intuition and the ability to apply appropriate methods to solve real-world business problems.

You must be proficient in writing production-grade code, with expertise in Python, SQL, and related data science tooling.

You must be capable of structuring poorly defined problems into clear analytical approaches and delivering robust solutions under uncertainty.

You must have a proven track record of delivering data-driven recommendations that meaningfully impacted business outcomes.

Nice to have

Prior experience collaborating closely with product and software engineering teams in a fast-paced, iterative environment.

Experience building, mentoring, and managing both data scientists and data analysts within a matrixed organization.

Direct experience with marketplace or two-sided platform business models and related metrics.

Practical notes

This role follows a hybrid work schedule.